Fortune 30 shrouds

[Good Fortune]

My brother and I just bought a Fortune 30. There's a substantial amount of rot in a few places. What concerns us is that the chain plates are secured only with washers through the deck. Obviously this is going to have to be reinforced one way or another. We're thinking of glassing in a piece of marine plywood. I'm wondering if other owners have different setups. If anyone has a few tips, it would be greatly appreciated.
We also need to remove the bowsprit to take care of some more rot, but we're having trouble finding out how to unfasten the staysail. There are no bolt heads on the top-side, and no access in the v-berth. Again, a bit of guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Faster]

I believe many of these hulls were sold as hull-and-deck kits so there may well be little consistency between boats as to how a lot of that kind of thing was done...

Do you have the aft cabin model? I'm guessing you're BC based?? Welcome to Sailnet.

[mitiempo]

The chainplates should be tied in to the main bulkhead if possible as the deck is not strong enough to support them long term. If the main bulkhead is not a possibility they could be replaced with outboard chainplates bolted through the hull after it has been strengthened as I believe they are very close to the deck edge.

[SloopJonB]

Did you buy the one in Coal Harbour that was going very cheap? The owners name was Paul. If so, I checked it out last summer. It has some fairly big areas of bad core in the deck around the chainplates and elsewhere that would have to be attended to before dealing with the rig fastenings. At least some of it had been VERY badly patched from underneath and that would have to be removed before proceeding.

That boat had a stock interior layout and IIRC the upper chainplates were bolted to the main bulkhead. If you have to completely re-do the chainplates, my first choice would be to mount them to the hull but on the inside so only the boltheads show on the outside of the hull. If you use carriage bolts it makes a very neat and discreet installation.

The "bowsprit" on that boat is just a fiberglass moulding and is not very strong, especially considering the big hole that was hacked in it for the anchor chain to go through. IMHO it should be replaced with a proper sprit of clear fir or stainless pipe.

Assuming we are talking about the same boat, you got an incredibly cheap deal. It seemed to be basically a pretty solid boat and a very worthwhile project. I would have bought it for more than you paid but I didn't want to be a two boat owner - again.

Have fun and good luck with it.

P.S. there is some info about it on a thread I started last summer when I was looking at it - check it out. There might be some useful info for you.