On Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:38:30 -0400, the_bmac wrote:

I did that with one of my old sailboats. I added two chainplates, one
on each side of the transom to anchor each side of the split stay. The
only attachment to the deck was a pad eye for the lower end of the 4:1
adjustor tackle. Both the chainplates and pad eye were reinforced
with backing plates. The upper end of the adjustor tackle went to an
arrangement of two blocks that rode down on the split stays to
increase tension as the tackle was lowered.

This is the setup that I'm looking at. I'm guessing your chainplates were added to the exterior of
the transom.

Yes. They were relatively small and did not create an appearance
issue.

What did you use for backing plates?

Aluminum plate, about 1/8th with SS fender washers over.