Pulling chainplates with the rig up

[Peregrine1983]

Hey all,

I'm hauling my boat for winter at the end of next week and need to decide if I'm pulling my rig (P424 ketch) or leaving it in for winter. I would rather leave the rig up.

I've got at least two chainplates that I want to pull, inspect, and possibly replace. I've been up both my masts and all my external hardware looks good.

My plan was to slack the rig a bit, and simply remove each chainplate one at a time for inspection.

Is this a dumb thing to do? Any advice appreciated.

[Diesel Bill]

I hope you get some good answers as I plan on re bedding my chain plates starting tomorrow. My plan was to measure the gaps between the threaded sections of the turn buckles and count how many turns to loosen the shrouds one at a time. Just enough to remove the toggle pin and free the shroud from the chain plate. Then clean up the area under the plate and re bed with butyl tape. Seems like the only way to unbolt the plate is to cut a slit in the vinyl liner inside the cabin. Any ideas how to best suture it closed afterwards? Hope others with more Knowledge, experience will chime in.

[Mirage35]

My technique for haul-out may be relevant.

I left the mast up, but the backstay is in the way of the travelift crossbar. To deal with this the approach, passed on to me by the previous owner, is to attach halyards to the toe rail on both sides, about at the forward end of the cockpit, before releasing the backstay. Two halyards each side, well tensioned, do the job just fine - in fact two is probably overkill but that's better than the alternative.

I would guess that easing the shrouds and doing something similar to keep things upright would also work in your case.

[a64pilot]

When Mack Sails replaces the chain plates in an Island Packet they have the rig up, this allows them to tension the stays before the epoxy sets allowing the rig to hold the chain plate in place.
If pulling one at a time I’m sure you would be fine, however I’d us the halyard as a back up just in case and it’s easy to do.
People re rig their boats all time without pulling the mast

[Peregrine1983]

Thank you for the replies.

DieselBill - Good idea to count (or maybe I'll mark with a marker) the positions on the turnbuckles as I loosen. Not sure about your vinyl liner. One of mine is in a wooden box behind my settee... Have to figure out how to attack that without rebuilding my interior.

AnglaisInHull - Using a halyard does seem a great idea to temporarily maintain some pull on the rig in the direction of the pulled backstay.

[Colin A]

Originally Posted by AnglaisInHull

My technique for haul-out may be relevant.

I left the mast up, but the backstay is in the way of the travelift crossbar. To deal with this the approach, passed on to me by the previous owner, is to attach halyards to the toe rail on both sides, about at the forward end of the cockpit, before releasing the backstay. Two halyards each side, well tensioned, do the job just fine - in fact two is probably overkill but that's better than the alternative.

I would guess that easing the shrouds and doing something similar to keep things upright would also work in your case.

I used to work in a yard without a mast crane (we called one in when needed) so the majority were hauled stick up. As mentioned in the quote above you can clip in the halyard to act as a stay depending on deck hardware. We used to do it all the time. I'm guessing your mast is keel stepped?

[Peregrine1983]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

When Mack Sails replaces the chain plates in an Island Packet they have the rig up, this allows them to tension the stays before the epoxy sets allowing the rig to hold the chain plate in place.
If pulling one at a time I’m sure you would be fine, however I’d us the halyard as a back up just in case and it’s easy to do.
People re rig their boats all time without pulling the mast

Awesome. Thanks A64.

[Peregrine1983]

Originally Posted by Colin A

I used to work in a yard without a mast crane (we called one in when needed) so the majority were hauled stick up. As mentioned in the quote above you can clip in the halyard to act as a stay depending on deck hardware. We used to do it all the time. I'm guessing your mast is keel stepped?

Yes keel stepped.

[Cheechako]

It should be no problem. Maybe tie a halyard off near that location.

[oldjags]

You should be doubly-fine with a keel-stepped mast. How can it possibly fall even with no stays at all?? A deck-stepped mast is a whole different thing, but even then, it's easy to re-rig one stay at a time using a halyard to substitute for the missing stay.

I would not recommend climbing an unstayed mast, or raising the sails, but it should be fine just standing there in the yard.

[Peregrine1983]

Thanks. I figured as much. The mizzen is deck stepped, but the mainmast is keel stepped. I also figured the mizzen adds some stability - as the chainplates I'm concerned about are for the main.

[roverhi]

If you have double lowers on a single spreader mast, the lowers will keep the mast up whether it's deck stepped or keel stepped. I've only had deck stepped masts and working on them has not been a problem. If I was doing the cap shrouds and stays, would use halyards to stabilize the mast head. If you're working on the lower shroud chain plates, just keep one shroud attached each side, preferably one forward and one aft.

[james247]

Originally Posted by Diesel Bill

I hope you get some good answers as I plan on re bedding my chain plates starting tomorrow. My plan was to measure the gaps between the threaded sections of the turn buckles and count how many turns to loosen the shrouds one at a time. Just enough to remove the toggle pin and free the shroud from the chain plate. Then clean up the area under the plate and re bed with butyl tape. Seems like the only way to unbolt the plate is to cut a slit in the vinyl liner inside the cabin. Any ideas how to best suture it closed afterwards? Hope others with more Knowledge, experience will chime in.

The lining is generally put in in panels. It's the second last process in finishing.b the last being the trimming. This is normally screwed. Remove the trimming remove the panel and you will have a much better idea of what if any issues you might have.
Replace the stay you are removing with a halyard. The bottle screw should allow you to release the pin. Don't slacken off the whole rig. Or it will all need retuning. Then you should use a rigger. Take the chain plates to a rigger and let him see what's behind the panel he's seen many you haven't seen any. Experience is great insurance. You can have the chain plates blued or x-rayed.
There are some great ways to duplicate stainless steel parts using water jet and garnet hi pressure cutting. This cool process doesn't heat and harden the stainless steel when using drills and other cutting blades.
Yes it costs a little more but it's so accurate and its holding up your mast afterall

[lazydove]

Originally Posted by Peregrine1983

Hey all,

I'm hauling my boat for winter at the end of next week and need to decide if I'm pulling my rig (P424 ketch) or leaving it in for winter. I would rather leave the rig up.

I've got at least two chainplates that I want to pull, inspect, and possibly replace. I've been up both my masts and all my external hardware looks good.

My plan was to slack the rig a bit, and simply remove each chainplate one at a time for inspection.

Is this a dumb thing to do? Any advice appreciated.

I have done it several times even on my yawl. One plate at a time, checked the wind forecast before and secured with a halyard.

[Stu Jackson]

One at a time. Never used a halyard. Keel stepped. It simply shouldn't take that long, and I wasn't gonna be outside in a howling gale that would require additional support anyway.