Sustainable Sailing

Today we have removed all 6 chainplate bolts that are accessible from the aft cabin. See Feeling vindicated by chainplate condition. Also one mooring cleat and the pushpit bolts (which had no backing plate at all).

Then we have prepared the largest plywood backing plates. These go the full length of the aft cabin under the hull shelf that supports the deck. They are 9mm marine ply, thickened epoxy will ensure a smooth, even bed between the shelf and the ply.

This will be supplemented by extra localised backing plates for the cleat and pushpit.

In the picture you can see another, smaller 9mm ply backing plate on top of the large one. This will be a backing plate for all 3 chainplates per side, attached with slightly thickened epoxy. Below that will be a third, smaller backing plate of 10mm G10.

The next job has been preparing the aft cabin to fit the backing plates. After a lot debate we decided to remove the ply lining from the cabin sides. This will make the backing plates easier to fix and we will be able to fit a lot more insulation between the stringers.

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We have sanded the underside of the deck shelf ready for the ply backing plate.

Hoping to do the first epoxying tomorrow, possibly. Meanwhile the temperature is plummeting so retreating to the cabin with the heaters.

We did get to measure all the existing stainless steel rigging. As we suspected 6mm for the mizzen and 8mm for the main mast.