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Chain plate or impact.

7K views 38 replies 16 participants last post by  chucklesR 
#1 ·
Here's a photo from May 2013, me sanding down my 3 inch wide 2 inch thick rub rail.

Here's a photo from August 2013, I was sanding the under side of the toe rail (which explains the teak dust) and found this little bit of joy.

Note the first picture is provided so you can zoom in and see it wasn't there.

There was a "del rechio" in June, which may, may I say, have caused a roll and hit to the piling there (it's fended off with a 9 inch diameter fender.

Irwins have embedded chain plates, no way at all to inspect without a grinder and a chop saw.
I have a surveyor with a thermal imager scheduled in, any ideas, hopes, prayers and donations?
 
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#28 ·
I honestly don't have an answer at this point Jim.
I know (and knew when I bought it) that at some point there was a leak in the area of one plate.
Like you I know all boats leak, somewhere, sometime.

I can understand water leaking around a chain plate's cover and corroding the top couple of inches of my cap plate (teak) and bulwark (4-6 inches high in that area - and that's before it gets to the 'hull' or the deck level.
How is would continue down the encapsulated - which I take to mean solid fiberglass and resin wrapped plate and then delaminate of cause movement enough to crack gell coat - I'm thinking that's rocket science and only a grinder can tell.

Unfortunately, but the time I have it ground out to see if there's a problem, well it will need to be replaced won't it.
 
#31 ·
I can understand water leaking around a chain plate's cover and corroding the top couple of inches of my cap plate (teak) and bulwark (4-6 inches high in that area - and that's before it gets to the 'hull' or the deck level.
How is would continue down the encapsulated - which I take to mean solid fiberglass and resin wrapped plate and then delaminate of cause movement enough to crack gell coat - I'm thinking that's rocket science and only a grinder can tell.

Unfortunately, but the time I have it ground out to see if there's a problem, well it will need to be replaced won't it.
The plate is not totally encapsulated. It protrudes where the rigging attaches. Stainless expands and contracts at a different rate than fiberglass. There is not a way to permanently seal this with fiberglass. Same issue occurs with rudderposts made of stainless inside fiberglass rudders - they all get wet eventually.

In my opinion that is the worst way to attach chainplates - at least for whoever owns the boat after a few decades.
 
#29 ·
Take them out from the inside - don't even THINK about going through the outside. Remove them intact and take them to a machine shop that does stainless - they can simply cut new ones from bar stock and use yours as a template for any drilling.

Sand and polish the new ones then get them electropolished - they will outlast you.

The simplest install would be to drill through from outside the hull and mount them in their original places inside the hull (after grinding those areas smooth).
 
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#33 ·
If you haven't already cut everything open, how about just cutting plates off under the deck and remove the bit that sticks thru the deck .Glass the opening and use the remaining plate as backing for new plates on the outside of hull. Drill thru from outside and bolt it all together.
 
#34 ·
I think it would be worth it to remove the plates from inside the hull and mount backing plates on the inside where you can see them. Metal plates embedded inside the hull will eventually cause problems as they expand and contract at different rates. Digging them out and reglassing isn't such a big job.
 
#35 ·
Interesting thread - I've learned quite a bit from reading it.
To the guys who say things like 'removing the plates and re-glassing aren't such a big job'...I don't think that's the case for everybody.

I've done a fair amount (altho much less than most on this forum, to be sure) of repair work, involving some glass, lots of resin; sheathed a wooden boat in glass, etc..., but I find that significant glass work like this always makes me nervous, especially when it's structural in nature...How many other guys feel like that??

On a side note - Chuckles - in the original picture, are you actually standing in your dinghy, in the water, with an extension cord hanging over the side of the dinghy while operating a power tool???
I hope this is an optical illusion, and there are some safety precautions that I don't see in the picture, or I suspect self-electrocution is a much larger worry for you than a dismasting.
 
#36 ·
Glass work is what is referred to as "semi-skilled labour". Most boats other than high tech ones are laid up by low paid workers. It takes very little experience to get quite good at it. Experience mostly makes your work neater, not stronger.

Cutting out those chains would be nasty work due to all the cutting & grinding it would require but it wouldn't require a lot of skill. Having a second person holding a powerful vacuum next to the tool would help a LOT.

That's assuming they aren't also buried behind cabinetry - removing that without damaging it would require some finesse.

People who haven't done glass work are often intimidated by it but if you can wallpaper you can laminate glass. I find it easier than papering actually because you don't have to be so precise - the seams don't have to be perfectly aligned. :)
 
#37 ·
Alright folks.
Here are the images I got back.
This is an image taken from the outside.

The red is a fixed window, the purple going through it is the chain plate - not yet going through the deck.
The arrows are highlighting areas that show moisture. There is literally no way to tell is there is corrosion or not. The curving line is my jib sheet and the horizontal band is my toe rail (a 2x3 inch teak rail).
Go back to my first post in this thread - the bottom arrow points to the spider crack



The yellow line is a bookcase shelf, the lighter vertical band is a chainplate, the arrows point to water/moisture. Note the moisture is to aft of the plate - gravity would take it that way.
Earlier in the thread there is a photo showing this area - the water damage lines up with the moisture area.



Directly underneath the above photo - surprise, I have two drips (it was raining the day before. This is on the side as in 'wipe with finger' water, not inside.

For all I know all the moisture is inside, not internal. I'll know more once I de-construct the furniture.
That will be a new thread, I'll stick a link to it in this thread.
 
#38 ·
The chainplates are probably fine, but this just isn't something that you leave as a question mark hanging over your head.

I'm sorry that you have to go through all this work, but at least it's near the end of the season, and you can spend the winter working on it.
 
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