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Thought I'd post about my recent purchase of 1/4"x1 1/2" x 14" silicon bronze chainplates. I bought them at Atlas Metals here in Denver and had them finished at Western Sculpture Supply also in Denver. Total cost for the bronze and the finishing work was about $400. I'm leaving the aft deck mounted chainplate stock (as it is in good condition) and the forward bowsprit fitting. I'll post photos of the install as it comes together.
Raven has aluminum backing plates so her current set up doesn't seem to be a problem. I do need to pull the bolts and check them out. I have inspected the backing plates and replaced the standing rigging but have never had the bolts out. It would be a shame to lose the rig over a couple of bolts.
Just for general information, how much of the cost was for the material itself? Bronze is very easy to work with. If you had a band saw or even a hack saw it would be pretty easy to cut the lengths and then clean them up on a stationary belt sander. Drill some holes and you are in business.
Bronze seems like a much better material than stainless for this application. What are you planing to use for backing plates? It seems like building up the hull thickness would be a great start to installing them.
Those chain plates should look extremely good on your Cape Dory, Steve.
Yep, they're external chainplates. I got the unfinished bronze for $250 .... definitely a tiny bit torqued a needed some finessing to get them straight. I'll be adding 4-5 layers of woven roving to the interior of the hull and then using G10 backing plates that I'll cut to size. I would have stuck with the original Cape Dory chainplate design, but it would have taken a lot more work. All the weldment would need to be cut out and replaced as we as the backing plates. This is way more simple.... I hope
So we just finished the project. All in all, it took 4 days and went smoothly thanks to all the good information on this board. We mainly went with Fred's (http://www.sbastro.com/FeNIX/mainFrameSet.htm) design.
After de-tensioning the rig, the removal of the "weldment" that is glassed into the hull only took 1 day. We did all the work with a Dremel... not sure if you could do it with any other tool since it's pretty tight in there. 90% of the metal was in good condition, the remaining 10% was really bad. I'm sure the rig would have been fine for another 10 years but we couldn't risk that. We then sanded and prepped the surface, filled in the indentations that the weldment had made with silica-thickened epoxy. Once the surface was relatively smooth, we laid 1.5 oz chopped strand matte (about 14" by 24") to provide a good base and smoothen the transition between the hull and the bulkheads. After that, we went with 2 layers of 24oz woven roving cloth (some people do more, but our hull was 3/4" thick here).
Once that was all set, we made a really thick silica-epoxy paste and glued in the 3/8" G10 packing plate to make sure the backing plates made full contact with the hull. This was really important since a couple plates had pretty large voids caused by the curvature of the hull and G10 doesn't bend well. We held the plates in place with heavily greased bolts while the epoxy setup. Once that was done, we drilled the remaining holes and bedded the plates with Butyl. Did all of this with the mast up and the boat in the water!
You did a fantastic job. Really nice.
Please post a picture when you're done with the interior. For those of us not familiar with the CD30 interior it'd be interesting to see what you had to do for access and how it went back together. The close shots are great for detail but perspective is lacking.
I really like how you cut the slot in the rub rail.
Excellent job! Looks great and should be seriously strong. Bedding the backing plates in epoxy was key.
I don't think I would have tried doing it with the rig up and in the water. It would be interesting to hear a bit more detail of how you held everything in place while you changed all the wires that hold things in place, Steve.
I would never consider a project like this (in or out of the water). But it is great to know there are sailors like you who are maintaining and upgrading Cape Dory sailboats.
Fair winds,
Roberto
a/k/a Sea Hunt "The Tadpole Sailor"
CDSOA #1097
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"I wish to have no Connection with any Ship that does not Sail fast for I intend to go in harm's way." Captain John Paul Jones, 16 November 1778, as quoted in Naval History and Heritage Command, http://www.history.navy.mil
It ended up being pretty easy to transfer the standing rigging over to the new chainplates while still having the mast up. We first disconnected and re-attached the intermediate stays one by one. Once they were all transferred over, we took the main halyard and attached it to the genoa track to take the load of the shroud we were disconnecting. We had the rig pretty loose in general so nothing was pulling the mast in any particular direction. Definitely a bit scary loosening the main shroud and transferring it over, but with the main halyard there, it was a non-event.
In reply to Jim, I'll try and post photos from a different perspective, though I'm currently away from the boat for a while. The second photo is of the starboard backing plates that lie directly behind the upper cabinets. To get to them, we had to remove the cabinet (very easy) and cut a hole in the liner approximately the same size as the upper cabinets. We'll make a little cover to make sure nothing in the cabinet falls back behind the hull-liner.
The last photo is of the starboard aft intermediate stay backing plate. This is located behind the planked wood in the salon. It is also directly behind the bulkhead. To access, we removed the planked wood and cut a hole in the hull-liner. We'll reattach the planked wood soon but since we bedded our chainplates in Butyl, they will require re-tightening for the next few weeks as the butyl sets in place.
Thanks to everyone for all the praise! Feels great to be done
Patrick
Just curious. What is the black "thing" I see on your hull in this picture? It's just forward of your forward lower shrouds chainplate? Also, did you put the slight bend in the upper portion of the chainplates (so they are oriented square to their respective turnbuckles) or was that part of the straightening and finish work done on the raw chainplates?
Once again, truly an awe inspiring job.
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That "Thing" on the side of the hull is a vent for the head. The previous owner installed it and I'm not sure why he put it so close to the waterline...
As for the bends, we had them done by Western here in Denver and was a part of the finishing work. Since they are silicone bronze, they could be cold bent and did not require annealing. Though, if you wanted to put a huge bend in, I was told it would need to be annealed. The intermediates needed between 10-12 degrees of bend; the main shrouds didn't need any bend.
