chainplates
 

i bought a 1978 rival 38 and am in the process of removing the old teak
decks. I am now at the chainplate area and noticed that the chainplates
are only through bolted through the deck (side decks ars solid glass
and the hull to deck joint is glassed together with about 6-7 inch
overlap). the boat was designed this way but this seems like an iferior
design mostly reserved for small coastal sailboats.rivals are known for
there ruggedness and several have circumnavigated.my particular boat
has crossed the atlantic and the deck shows no sign of distortion.

does anybody know of anyone who can manufacture
me some new ones the old ones seem to be in good shape but i would feel
better with new ones.
does anybody now of other ocean
sailing boats that used a similar design?
should i redesign the rig and use a more
conventional designed chainplate? any information
would be greatly appreciated.

On 11 Mar 2005 06:26:58 -0800, "dave"
wrote:

does anybody know of anyone who can manufacture
me some new ones the old ones seem to be in good shape but i would feel
better with new ones.

===============================

If you are in the New England area I would highly recommend Tom
Anderson at Hathaway, Reiser and Raymond in Stamford, CT. Otherwise
you need to find a good rigging shop that does custom fabrication. Do
not take shortcuts here. The chainplates and surrounding areas are
one of the most highly stressed areas of your boat as you probably
know.

Practical Sailor just (last 2 or 3 issues) did a 'feature' on
chainplates. They quoted Dave Gerr extensively, and what I took away
from the article is there's a tremenous ammount of stress placed on
these attachment points, where 'stronger' is almost always 'better'.

See:http://www.practical-sailor.com/pub/...es/5075-1.html

for the opening paragraphs of the article.

Typically on boat of your vintage, the cainplate(s) would be bolted to
a bulkhead or a 'knee' or 'chainplate web' of 1"-2" wood. The bulkhead
/ knee would be 'tabed' into the side of the hull with multiple layers
of glass, and the stainless steel chainplate (at 1/4" thick X perhaps
12-14" long X perhaps 1.5" wide) would be bolted 4 or 5 times to this
member.

Schaefer Marine has a line of such chainplates; find the tab at:

http://www.schaefermarine.com/hardware.asp

Too, these guys may be able to answer specific questions...

http://www.rigrite.com/Hardware/Chai...%20Chainplates

MW
Los Angeles

dave wrote:
i bought a 1978 rival 38 and am in the process of removing the old teak
decks. I am now at the chainplate area and noticed that the chainplates
are only through bolted through the deck (side decks ars solid glass
and the hull to deck joint is glassed together with about 6-7 inch
overlap). the boat was designed this way but this seems like an iferior
design mostly reserved for small coastal sailboats.rivals are known for
there ruggedness and several have circumnavigated.my particular boat
has crossed the atlantic and the deck shows no sign of distortion.

does anybody know of anyone who can manufacture
me some new ones the old ones seem to be in good shape but i would feel
better with new ones.

Maybe you shouldn't worry about it - if it has survived this long AND
crossed the Atlantic it's hard to see that a problem exists.

I agree it's not ideal BUT if there hasn't been a problem for all
these years why worry about it?

Evan Gatehouse