Thanks

Posted By: Seth Dabney, 2023-C, Oxford, MS
Date: 6/30/08 10:08p.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: Mines not. (Bob Frak)

for the ideas. The rig is within the tension range recommended on the Loos gauge. The uppers are pretty tight, the lower pretty loose. The boat has been rigged and in the water for almost a year. We used it quite a bit until this spring, when we have had lots of other things come up. I was putting varnish on the tiller, hatch rails, and redwood doors when I noticed that the old epoxy had cracked and and the forward one looked worse, indicating the failure is active. Now I am thinking about making a sandwich of some 1/4" AL plates held together by several 5/16" bolts/nuts. The plates extend a little past the plywood where a bolt would hold one end of a turnbuckle. I would clear off the gelcoat and epoxy the plates as well as through bolt them to better spread the load to the plywood. At the chain plate, another aluminum plate with the same hole patter, but a little longer than the existing backup-up plate would be added on top of the existing plate with longer bolts. The part hanging down would have a hole to accept the other turnbuckle end the way the outside chainplates do. With the outside tension off, I would use the turnbuckle to gradually pull the parts back, narrowing the gaps before adding epoxy. Without using a turnbuckle, I don't see how I will ever be able to draw the boat back closer to its original dimension. While that may not be critical, I would like to pull it back a little. Once the gaps are filled and the epoxy dry, I could probably replace the turnbuckle (and the plates if I don't epoxy them) with pieces of wood to help hold it together. If left to be structural, the turnbuckle would always be an unwanted conversation piece. Seth