West Coast Triton Chainplates

Triton106 · Post by **Triton106** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 1:13 am

Hi All,

Could someone tell me how I can access the sidestay and backstay chainplates on west coast tritons? I am in the process of having some work done on mast and adding a furler. The good folks at Svendsens told me that the chainplates need to be replaced soon. But the sidestay and backstay chainplates of my triton (hull #106) are fiberglassed in. How do I access it without cutting into the chainplate?

I appreciate any suggestions you may have and also if you can suggest what will be the best tool to use to cut out the FB.

Best regards,

Post by **Tim** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 7:03 am

I'm not familiar with how the chainplates are done in the West Coast boats, as I've never been aboard one, but in terms of removing the fiberglass that is covering them, tools like angle grinders (with cutoff wheels), Dremels, or Multi-Masters are likely your best bet for the removal surgery. The hardest part of this is likely to be tight and awkward access; the actual removal probably won't be too bad if you can get the proper tool in there.

I don't know why any builder ever thought glassing over chainplates was a good idea.

Figment · Post by **Figment** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 11:03 am

and yet it's still fairly common practice in new boats.

kabauze · Post by **kabauze** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 12:16 pm

The chainplates on WC boats were done in at least a couple of ways. On the early boats, like #106 above, the shroud chainplates were aligned fore-and-aft and were screwed/bolted to blocks of fir 2x4 on the inside of the hull and then glassed over. The backstay chainplate was done the same way except that it was aligned athwartships. I'm corresponding with another WC boat owner in Southern California who has #105 and he is going through the replacement process right now. Perhaps he's on the forum and will chime in; I don't know. But he's chosen to remove the old chainplate installation entirely and convert to the way the late model WC boats were done. I have #450, one of the last WC boats, and the upper shroud chainplates are athwartships and bolted to the main bulkhead. The forward and aft lower shroud chainplates are also aligned athwartships and bolted to knees just like the EC boats. The knees have cores of 1/4" or 3/8" fir ply and are massively glassed to the hull and the bottom of the deck. The chainplates are easily serviceable since they are not glassed over. The only questionable attachment is at the backstay, where Aeromarine built up the center of the transom with an extra 1/4" of roving and then through-bolted the backstay chainplate directly to the inside of the transom. It comes up through an athwartships slot in the stern rail. On my boat I'm in the middle of converting this to a glassed-in knee like the EC boats have.

Some pictures of #450's chainplate replacement (and other buffoonery) can be seen at theNevermind blog.

Tim's advice (as usual) is on the money. You have to remove the old knees to replace the chainplates no matter what, so break out the angle grinder and Dremel and maybe the good old fashioned wrecking bar. I found that I couldn't work on the aft lowers without taking out the cabinetry in the head and hanging locker. Once the old ones are out, you have the option of re-creating the original installation or installating transverse knees. Since they seem like equal effort, the transverse knees are the way to go since they allow inspection and service.

Keep us posted as to what you decide and how it goes!

Figment · Post by **Figment** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 12:38 pm

"transverse" knees?

kabauze · Post by **kabauze** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 2:36 pm

Stickler! OK, it should read "installing athwartships knees", which means knees like the EC and late WC boats have. Figment keeps me honest.

Figment · Post by **Figment** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 8:46 pm

well, ok, I should have asked the other side of the question.
What is a non-transverse knee?

re-reading your other post now, I think I know what you mean, though. It's a bit of a stretch to label those glassed-over hunks of 2x4 "knees", but I don't know what else you'd call them either.
"chainplate anchor blocking"?

Bah. Semantics. Hardly germane to the issue. I digress.

Robert The Gray · Post by **Robert The Gray** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 9:50 pm

I had some lifting of the starboard aft lowers on my wc hull #165. The way they did it on the day mine was built was with a tang welded to a 1/2 inch bronze rod. then a bit of glass mat to keep it in place. I replaced it with a winchard pad eye and a stainlesss backing plate. I could not get in there to do any "kneeing". it seems to be holding up but i have course transfered the load to the hull deck joint and not the hull directly. A knee would be nice, but one can only do so much on these old things.

r

Greg · Post by **Greg** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 10:44 pm

Here's a photo that should help clarify what's going on under the fiberglass:

If you just want to replace the chainplates and not the knees it might be possible to cut only the glass around the screw heads, remove the screws and pull the chainplate out from the top.

The backstay chainplate is the same except the screws are on the hull side of the 4x4 block and you'll have to remove the block to change the chainplate.

An angle grinder makes short work of the removing the knees.

Greg
Truelove - WC Triton #105

Post by **Tim** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 6:08 am

Thanks for posting that photo, Greg. That certainly clears up the setup.

There are a lot of ways that builders do chainplates, but I haven't seen that particular one before. Interesting.

Triton106 · Post by **Triton106** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 7:15 pm

Hi All,

Thank you very much for the info.

Greg, outstanding picture. Exactly what I was looking for. So you are #105. I hope I will run into you in the future.

Kabause, excellent blog. All of sudden I have a lot more options on what I can do to strengthen the chainplates. Too bad the pictures on your work with backstay knee are not showing on your blog.

Tim, thanks for the tips on the tools!

Best regards,