SS Chainplate manufacturing
 

After 10 years of dealing with leaky chainplates on my Tayana 37, I
have decided to solve the problem by moving them to the outside of the
hull. This eliminates the thru-deck hole and all the sealants/wooden
blocks/epoxies, etc that I am tired of renewing every couple years.

The plan is to pull the existing plate, have a new "exterior" plate
made, and then use the old plate as a backing for installing the new
ones. However, the factory hull reinforcement (inside the boat) at
the chainplate is tapered, so the the existing chainplate is basically
a flat piece of metal with a slight deflection above the deck.

As the exterior of the hull is a compound curve, its gonna take some
custom fabrication to match a piece of 2" wide x 3/8" thick piece of
316 SS to that shape. (Also a lot of work, as I have 6 chainplates)
I can make a template of the curve using doorskins, so it is possible
to get the shape to a fabricator. But is it physically possible to
bend SS this size into compound shapes?

I guess an option would be to use wooden blocks on the hull to make a
"flat" area in order to use "straight" chainplates, but I hate the
appearance of wooden blocks - to my eye they always seem to look
tacky... And then I would have to worry about the wood splitting and
allowing the chainplates to loosen... All in all, I'd rather not go
this route.

Any ideas welcome...

Mitch
sv KOMFY