Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveSails
Has anyone looked into replacement chainplates out of carbon fiber? I was recently reading of a new Bob Perry custom design where the hull and chainplates will be carbon fiber. Perhaps a good idea where all will be laid up as one unit but practical as a replacement on a conventional glass hull?
Some boats were made with SS plates glassed into the hull rather than bolted on, a major glass project to be sure. Rather than reglass new SS plates would it be possible to bond carbon fiber to the hull and form a chainplate stub? Obviously quite a bit of engineering as to size, strand orientation, bond area and rigging attachment would be required. No need for the cf plate to resemble the original plates, in fact the term 'plate' could be misleading, it need only to perform the same function.
The advantages I see are the elimination of corrosion issues, leaks if bonded to the deck and some weight saving.
Just a thought experiment for now so cost is not an issue but I don't believe it would be less than a SS replacement.
Any Ideas?
Steve
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Having built new boats this way, I can tell you a retrofit would be astronomically expensive. The reason being, the
chain plate layup must fan out on both sides of the hull, as well as wrapping over the titanium thimble. In a retrofit, rather than new construction, this would mean cutting out the deck and accessing a large area of hull
interior in way of all chainplates. That would require a lot of large holes in the deck on most boats, which would then have to be repaired. It'd almost be easier to remove the entire deck and
lift it up for access to the needed areas. Also, if the hull is cored, a solid block out (no core) is required to laminate the chainplates to. This is generally designed in, by tapering the
core off to nothing in the triangular area of the chainplate
layup, and having inner and outer skins meet in a solid laminate to accept the chainplate layup without creating a high spot. This would be extremely difficult to do after the fact in most boats, therefore expensive.
What you want to look at instead is simply replacing SS chainplates with titanium, which isn't as expensive as it used to be.