From Stem to Stern
So while all activity has been focused on the mast refurbishing, it is wise to have a closer look at the bits where it attaches to as well.
The stainless steel chainplates and stem fitting had a tarnish to them, so it is the perfect time to get an unobstructed view and access to these. A polish with Autosol Marine paste and some elbow grease and voila. Important is to give the areas a clean where there could be cracks appearing, or where the holes where the shrouds attach to are not excessively elongated by many years of wear'n tear.
Lucky we did, as we found out that the stem fitting (where the forestay attaches to the bow), had a hairline crack half way along a weld that was hidden underneath. Our friendly stainless steel fabricator John came to the rescue once again. Jeez he's good!
The deck was also slightly lifted from the hull in this area and it was an easy fix with Sikaflex and some fairing to make the stem fitting sit neat and flush on the deck. A light spray with white paint to match everything up better, another load of Sikaflex to bed the fitting in place, along with new bolts'n nuts and we were ready
for the mast once again.
It wasn't quiet that easy though, and the many muttered profanities emitted while head first, twisted in the chain locker, trying to get to the nuts of the stem fitting bolts was almost murder.
Still, it had to be done!
We went around and resealed all the chainplate fittings and dress plates with new sealant, taking care to tape up all around the areas as not to get silicone to fill up the non-skid patterns. A tedious job, but tell me about any job on a boat that doesn't turn out to be?!?
Another thing I'm glad we did was replace the bolts that fasten the chainplates under deck to the bulkhead. These are rather long and it took two people to replace these, as the arms are never long enough to reach around from one compartment to the other. We found a number of bolts where the hex head was almost corroded off. Held on by maybe 40% of it's thickness. We were pretty shocked and counted our lucky stars to have found this out before getting the mast back in the boat. Definitely well worth taking the time and check, seeing the big stick in the middle of the boat is highly dependent on it!
Some more polishing of some of the shiny stuff and Bela Vida is looking the goods again. We just can't wait to have the mast back in and that will be in the next blog...
