E26 mainsheet traveller

[Kevin Vine]

I am installing a dodger on my '84 Ericson 26. In the process of setting up the mainsheet traveller to better accommodate the dodger, I have discovered that all the screws used to fasten the traveller to the cabin top have seized. Two of them have already snapped off, and will need to be drilled out.

How the traveller is fastened to the cabin top appears to be a bit of a mystery.

It would appear that an aluminum bar is imbedded in the fibreglass of the cabin top and that the stainless steel screws securing the traveller are tapped into the aluminum bar. Is this the case? Does anyone have any brilliant ideas for how to free SS screws that have been bonded through corrosion to aluminum?

 

[gareth harris]

I can not give you specifics on your , but since noone else has chimed in I will pass on what I found on my earlier vintage Ericson. My track was through bolted with stainless steel screws that were never going to come out of the track, but after removing the nuts underneath the deck, the track came up with all the screws as a unit with crowbar assistance. The cost of replacing it was not ridiculous, and I plugged the holes as per Don Casey - cut out any wet core around the hole, fill with epoxy and then redrill.

If your track was built the same way as mine, then the underside was covered by headliner, and I would recommend cutting an exploratory hole underneath it to look for the bottom of the bolts. If I am right, you will have to cut access to all of them in order to remove the track, and then search the archives for ideas on what to do cosmetically once you are done. That will be a fairly major job, although not especially difficult; might it be easier to rework the dodger to fit about the mainsheet?

That is the best I can tell you, for a project like that it might be worth checking the archives at www.sailnet.com for information more specific to the E26.

Gareth
Freyja E35 #241 1972

 

[ccorcoran]

Traveler Attachment

Hi Kevin,

I'm not sure this info will apply, however, last year I removed the traveler from our 1987 E34. BTW, I used to own an 1986 E28, which means I think I remember the traveler set up on these smaller boats. On our 34, the traveler was supported on either side by small bridged risers mounted to the cabin top, outboard. The center of the traveler (Schaefer) was screwed directly into the hood over the plexiglass companionway hatch. I used a great deal of patience, WD40, an impact driver and finally, an electric impact wrench to get the screms out; about 3/4 of then were destroyed. Before the "undrilling," I removed the teak trim batten on the rear facing of the hood so I could get underneath with my fingers and ultimately, a wrench. On ours, the nuts appear to have been glassed in, so no wrench needed. Once the screws were removed, I was able to fill the holes and fair them. I no longer needed them as I installed a new Harken traverler that had been bent at the factory to match the arch and different hardware was used outboard and inboard for the mounting. I suspect that the production methodology should be similar and I hope this info is somewhat useful.