glassed in chainplate angst

[flo617]

Hello, I might have posted long ago on the subject, I don't remember...

Anyway, my chainplates have come to haunt me once again. They are glassed onto the hull from the inside and I'm slowly pushing the project of moving them outboard.

I thought a lot about it and bounced ideas and felt that it would be easier to drill through the old ones so in preparation I sanded an area 8''x4.5'' on one of them and built up the area with glass and epoxy untill the whole area was essentially flush. My project was to then drill (or have someone drill) four holes for the chainplate which would be bolted through the old ones and through a glued G10 plate that would occupy the flattened area.

Now I have a doubt... Is this a bad idea? Is it a terrible idea? Should I have pulled the chainplate out instead? Should I just use an angle grinder and grind through the middle until enough of the steel is gone before reglassing and easilly drill? How hard would it be to drill through 1/8th stainless steel? I asked the yard manager and he didn't like the idea. He said it would be a giant undertaking to do that. Of course he didn't take a look at the boat either... it's a columbia29 by the way...

I get the feeling from those guys that my boat is this piece of trash that I should consider dumping if I needed to do anything major to it... but it sails dammit and I like to sail!! I don't want to junk it nor to I want to buy a boat again.

Any thoughts? I was up working until 3am last night. I'm tired and a little overwhelmed.

[neilpride]

Wow!! masive backing plates!! lol, dont know how far you move the chainplate outboard? if the old one is the kinda style passing trough the caprail and glased to the sides inside , could be ok, the diference is not big deal, if not , you are changing the spreader chainplate angle and bad stuff can happen, you can use the old ones to clip halyhards or shackles hehe...

If im in your shoes i remove the old ones, anyway is another place to get leaks anyway, and glass inside the g10 without the mess of the old chainplates around , check well the angle of the chainplate with the angle of mast tangs to get a nice fit, good luck with the project....

[flo617]

Only a couple of inches.

I'd be focusing on the lower ones first. I'm not sure what to do with the upper as I don't want to mess with the angle.

[sww914]

Get a couple of 1/8" stainless chunks and drill some holes as a test before you commit. It isn't easy. It's possible but there's nothing easy about drilling stainless.

[Cheechako]

1/8" shouldnt be too bad if you go at it with good bits and at the right speed. You want the drill to dig in and hold a chip and not turn to fast or hot in the process. However, you dont know if the glass pocket is filled with rusty water do you?
The rigging cable angle change doesnt matter at all... worst case you need to adjust your spreader angle up/down.... the angle either side of the spreader should be equal.

[model 10]

So I had glassed in chain plates. I cut off the old ones flush with the deck. Through bolted the new external chainplates, through the hull, through the glassed in part of the old chainplates through the hull again and then big stacks of fender washers with 5200. It always looks good and is the least of my worries. The only issue was trying to make it look OK on the inside.

[minaret]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

1/8" shouldnt be too bad if you go at it with good bits and at the right speed. You want the drill to dig in and hold a chip and not turn to fast or hot in the process. However, you dont know if the glass pocket is filled with rusty water do you?
The rigging cable angle change doesnt matter at all... worst case you need to adjust your spreader angle up/down.... the angle either side of the spreader should be equal.

And use some cutting oil. If you get it too hot it will work harden and you"ll be screwed. Oil, sharp bit (preferably titanium brad point or better), and low RPM's does the trick no problem every time.