Cape Dory Chain Plates

[Jim Jones]

Many CD's ( 25, 26, 27, 28, 30 ) have chain plates as illustrated in the owners manual - basically a flat plate of cold rolled steel with two to three re-bar "L" hooks welded to it and glassed into the hull. You should be aware that in older CDs that leaking around the bronze stay fittings will cause the plates to rust. Given time, the plates will delaminate and the re-bar hooks will rust through. Once this happens the deck is taking the full stress of the stays. I don't think I need to mention what can happen once this situation occurs.

I took my CD28 over and un-stepped the mast yesterday. On returning home I cut away the liner where necessary and ground away the glass over the re-bar hooks and removed the plates. Most of the metal flaked away during removal, although I did recover a complete piece to use as a template for making new plates. The maximum thickness of the recovered plate was about 1/16 inch thich. Two of the re-bar hooks had rusted completely thru on the port side and one on the starboard side.

You can't simply make new plates with re-bar hooks because they will not slip right in. One of the hooks is on the main cabin side of the structrul bulhead with only an inch of clearence at the top. My plan is to use 1/2" 316 SS for the new plates and 1/4" x 3" SS strap for the hooks. For a CD28, three straps will be required. They will be bent at a 90 degree angle at one end to over lap the bronze fitting holes in the 1/2" plates and lay parallel to the hull. At the bottom end of the strap a cross piece will be welded to form an inverted "T".

With this setup, the plate can be slipped into the available space and then the inverted T's can be bolted into place with the same bolts use to secure the bronze deck fittings. Once bolted in place the inverted "T" straps can be glassed into place and the liner repaired.

This is a hot, dirty job, but one which can't be ignored considering the consequences of a ripped out deck and lost mast, etc.

Anyone with an older CD should make a close inspection of these plates and take immediate action if required. They are tough to see, but if you can flak metal off of the ends, then you can bet that you need to get after it.

If you have to pay for this repair I suspect that it will not be cheap, but if you have the tools and can do the repair yourself then it can be done for less then $600 which includes step/unstep the mast and SS materials/welding.

Good Luck,

Jim Jones



jjones@intergate.com

[john churchill]

Many CD's ( 25, 26, 27, 28, 30 )

my cd26 (hull 49) does not have this arrangement, but rather the "padeyes" on deck with a robust aluminum backing plate under the deck/hull flange. dana's cd26 (hull 2) is the same. these were boats built later in history that the ones mentioned and maybe they learned from their mistakes.

[Scott Ritchey]

Seems "older" CDs have the iron backing plates and "newer" ones don't. I'd rather not cut mine open to see which version I have. Does anyone know when CD switched from iron to aluminum?



ritcheyvs@aol.com

[Duncan Maio]

Seems "older" CDs have the iron backing plates and "newer" ones don't. I'd rather not cut mine open to see which version I have. Does anyone know when CD switched from iron to aluminum?

My 1977 CD 27 has the arrangement that Jim notes at the forestay and backstay, and "L" shaped steel backing plates at the shrouds, glassed into the deck and hull and spanning the deck-hull joint. They are plenty rusty, but appear to me (and to the yard) to be in more than serviceable shape. I plan to grind as much as necessary this winter to determine if there are any deficiencies, and re-glass as needed.



dmaio@att.net