Ericson 30+ chainplate U bolt

[sailorman37]

From what I understood during the first exchange, the quote was just for the U bolt. I really don't want to pay that kind of money so I'm going to try two other ideas. First is a salvage yard and the second is a plain stainless U bolt. I'll add nuts and file them off till I have the basic shape of the original.

The aluminum blocks as shown in the picture have holes for the bolt threads. Most of the corrosion and pitting was on the face towards the fiberglass at these bolt holes. There really was not a lot of corrosion or pitting in the center depression for the tie rod. The tie rods have mushroom ends that allow for tension on the rod. Not too concerned about the face pitting on the aluminum block. Also, the aluminum cylinder at the other end of the tie rod looked good.

The SS backing block showed what I believe to be crevice corrosion. I don't think it was stress cracking from the tension. The face was also towards the fiberglass where deoxygenated water must have sat for long time. I made up a new SS backing plate and hope to have it welded back on to the vertical piece. We'll see how that goes.

 

[mherrcat]

The tie rods have mushroom ends that allow for tension on the rod.

So the tie-rod is only threaded on the lower end that attaches to the aluminum rod glassed into the side of the hull? I thought the tie-rods worked like the Navtec turnbuckle studs; opposing threads on either end, but then I've never disassembled one...

 

[sailorman37]

No opposing threads - only on the cylinder end. The cylinder is actually free to rotate in the FRP hole. When you take off the top block nuts, the whole assembly falls foward towards you. The tie rod is unscrewed from the cylinder. Putting back together, I threaded them 1 less turn than what they had coming out. after tightening up the bolts, I put a wrench on the tie rod and tuned till snug - about 1 turn.

 

[rwthomas1]

At Rigrite's price there are few options. My first would be is it possible to retrofit a different chainplate system onto the boat? Using a chainplate from a current production boat such as a Catalina, Tartan, Sabre, etc. would likely be much cheaper provided it could be adapted to the boat. Given Ericsons tie-bar system custom tie-bars would be easier to have fabricated to attach the new chainplates to the factory load points. The other option is to contact a supplier like www.alliedtitanium.com and see what the cost would be to have replacements made up in a metal that essentially will last forever. I'm guessing there would be some interest here in a group buy of titanium chainplates.....

RT

 

[sailorman37]

Finally replaced the 30 year old Navtec U-bolts with Ti U-bolts made by Allied Titanium. Only $48 each, but a few issues. Since these were custom, Allied did not have a die made and had to bend the U bolts by hand. The end result is only 4 of the 6 were usable. Two were off by 1/8" - 1/4" on width. Waiting to have 2 more made was not an option since it took 5 months for the first run so I used 2 of the original 316 S.S. bolts for the middle stay. Those stays sees the least load so it should not be too much of an issue. The bolts were paired with Nylock bolts to make the assembly. Still pleased with the end result despite the issues.