Any chainplate failures?

[Moderator]

We started inspecting our chainplates by removing them. We’ve pulled 3 lower shrouds from the main mast, and found some crevice corrosion. You can read about it, and see photos, on our blog here:
[url]http://svrainshadow.com/?p=184{/url]

We want to pull more chainplates, but the rest are right buggers to reach. For example, the main cap shroud accessible from the head appears to have been tightened before the interior fitting was done, else there were special tools that allowed the nuts to be turned with essentially no gap between the knee that is fiberglassed to the hull and the nut on the chainplate rod below deck. A box wrench on the nut is not possible perpendicular to the knee because you run into a bulkhead between the head and salon, and at right angles to the knee, you cannot fit the box wrench (or socket or anything) between the knee and the nut because the gap is only about 2 mm. It seems the only solutions are to either grind out some area of the knee so we can get a socket on the nut, or to simply cut the chainplate rod and be ready to replace it. Both are pretty drastic.

So, our question is, has anyone had any chainplate failures? Or has anyone been successful at pulling all chainplates to inspect them, and have some tricks for how to achieve it?

We are hoping to take our boat offshore, so inspecting the 36 yo chainplates seems a good idea before we put them to the test.

[Richard Garlant]

Hi
Your correct it is a difficult job but can be done. I removed all the chain plates from La Torchee to reseal underneath the deck and also to repair one which was twisted. I was horrified to find that two of the others had nuts with cracks , so despite the difficulty it’s worth doing. I used a spanner, with difficulty but if you tap the dowel on the end you can shift it over to get at the nuts.

[Fred Morner]

Hello,

I also removed the starboard chainplates. It took hours (and brusied knuckles)to remove the rusted nuts using a fine toothed ratchet wrench. Nuts are BSF threads by the way

[Ollie Holden]

We pulled all ours and found some significant crevice corrosion in the lowers. I had a complete set of new chain plates made up by a local stainless metal works. They were a pain to get to but I had taken the heads moulding out and the port lockers anyway. Afterwards I created a little inspection “door” so I can check them regularly. Crevice corrosion is quite frightening – one snapped off when I was trying to unscrew the nut.

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