Chainplates slots ?

[neilpride]

Hello again, well after 3 months of hard work we finally have a new mast , new rigging and new chainplates for a c&c 42 landfall.

I have just a small problem in my eyes with the new chainplates, old plates consist of a long bar of 8 mm thick inox and at the deck opening there is another small piece of plate welded to the top to make 12 mm at the turnbuckle pin hole, now i order the plates all the way in 10 mm thick .

Question is the chainplates slots looks to me a bit bigger now because the plate is 10 mm, plates are trhubolted at the bottom of the bulkheads and there is a amount of play in the top.

Can i fill the gap with a mix of thick epoxy to close the gap and after caulk the slots cover plates with caulking ??
If i put just caulking compound im sure the plate is going to work forward and backwards and break the caulk and leak in short time, anyone have a better idea?
Thanks ..

[roverhi]

I'd just leave it and fill with a non hardening caulk like Life Caulk, Butyl, etc. 5200 and other polyurethane caulks may also work fine, I'm just not sold on them. By having a greater thickness of caulk, you are reducing the stress on the bond of the caulk with the deck. When the caulk bead is very thin with something that may move around a bit, it doesn't take much movement for the caulk bond to break down. Up to a limit, thicker caulk bead is better and 2mm should be well within the limit.

Good idea to get rid of the double upped chain plate. A Valiant 40 lost it's stick in SoPac last year because of this. Salt water got into the join between doubled plates and hidden crevice in between the two pieces caused the stainless to fracture bringing down the stick.

[neilpride]

Thanks for the advice, im sure 10 mm will be fine , my big concern is the gap at the slots , is huge and i can move the top of the plate a lot, the chainplates covers are made it new for the new 10 mm plates, i dont think is a good idea to let the covers to copy with the side loads , but thanks for the advice.