Upper shroud chain plate placement

[Mr_Dreamer]

I have a 75 Catalina 22 that I trailer sail. When I take the mast down I have to loosen the upper shrouds. I've noticed in videos that it looks like some guys don't have to.

Are the chain plates on later models farther aft? Have they been moved? If they have been moved is it worth it? Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

Just looking for a quicker setup.

 

[Gene Neill]

There should be no reason to loosen the upper shrouds, unless some previous owner moved the chainplates forward. Only the forward lowers need be removed.

 

[Mr_Dreamer]

They haven't been moved. My brothers 76 is the same way also. Our chain plate brackets are bolted to the front of the bulkhead and I've noticed that the majority of them are mounted to the back. I don't have to remove the shrouds, just loosen them.

 

[dzl]

That's right. Mine are on the front of the bulkhead also. Everyone claims you don't need to loosen them so I tried this the other day with near catastrophic results. The shrouds got so tight, that when I was going back up with the mast it snapped the last five feet forward unaided with quite a lot of force. This can not be how you guys do it? Our boats must have a different chain plate location. So, why couldn't we move them to the back of the bulkhead like on others boats?

 

[Gene Neill]

Wow, I got nothin'. Never heard of such a thing!

It doesn't seem like a ~5/8" difference (front to back side of bulkhead) would make such a dramatic difference on a 25' long shroud.

 

[Gene Neill]

Something to do with the mast step maybe, the way the mast hinges?

 

[Mr_Dreamer]

As far as I can tell the mast step and the way it hinges is all the same. I plan to move the chain plates to the back of the bulkheads but I wanted to make sure that there wouldn't be any issues. I think that swapping them from the front to the back will move them at least 2".

 

[dzl]

As you can see in this pic, the plates are on the front of the bulkhead. I've never seen this in any other interior shots of C22s. Moving them to the back would move the chainplate on deck approximately 2" aft as dreamer said. This isn't much, but if the normal location is in line with the mast and ours are 2" forward of the hinge point, that would account for them getting extremely tight when the mast comes down.

I'm just curious if this is normal for boats the same vintage and Catalina changed the location on newer ones? Or maybe the guys were just drunk the day they built mine...

 

[greg_m]

Nice "scalp scrachers" in the upper corner!

 

[greg_m]

I was wondering if the spreaders may have any influence on the OP's issue?

 

[Mr_Dreamer]

I've thought that too. I still have original Catalina spreader mounts but dzl has the upgraded ones. My spreader bars do angle forward slightly tho.

 

[Gene Neill]

As you can see in this pic, the plates are on the front of the bulkhead. I've never seen this in any other interior shots of C22s ...

Granted, our boats are different model years ....

 

[Gene Neill]

Oh, one more thought ... about the mast step again. Could it have been mounted too far aft? Could it be moved forward, as an alternative to the deck-surgery required to move the chainplates aft (if the lengths of the forestay and backstay allow)?

 

[dzl]

That's a thought. I guess some measurements would be in order.

It looks as though your plates are on the front of the bulkhead too Gene? Hmmm... now I am confused.

 

[Mr_Dreamer]

That could be an easy fix. Right now the mast step is centered over the compression post. Would that be an issue if it was mostly on the forward end of it?

When I bought the boat it had a compression post problem. It was smashing the fiberglass at the base so I cut out the fiberglass and found out that the wood support post wasn't tall enough from the factory. I'd heard that sometimes that wood will rot and that is what I expected but it was good. I had some delrin blocks laying around so I built it up and then I went back with a stainless post. (Off the topic but I thought it was interesting)

 

[Leeward Rail]

As per @Gene Neill All the New style boats that i've seen have the plate bolted to the front of the bulkhead.

Moving the plate to the rear of the bulkhead simply forces the plate to be on an angle, and pushes the upper end towards the bow. The deck hole would still be in the same place so it would just alter the plate position from verticle.

Pushing the upper end towards the bow would be the opposite of what was trying to be achieved.

FWIW, In the wrong position it wouldn't line up flat with the bulkhead, and need to be slightly bent.

Or are we talking moving the hole in the deck too ?

 

[Mr_Dreamer]

In the deck too.

 

[Mr_Dreamer]

I like Gene's idea on the mast step tho. Gonna give that some thought. Gene, your interior is making my envious. Mine is all original.

You can see that I still haven't repaired the fiberglass under my compression post.

 

[dzl]

Yes we would be moving the eyebolt on the deck also, actually that would be the whole reason for moving the bulkhead plate. It's actually simple, just drill a 1/2" hole and fill the old one with epoxy. It would be in good company with all the other holes I've filled in already....

So I guess the new design has the plate in the front. If I'm not mistaken in the pictures I've seen on Clouddivers and Stingy Sailors boats theirs are on the back. They have the original design but newer....

 

[Mr_Dreamer]

Good news. I moved my mast step forward 1 3/4" (all I could move it and still bolt it down to the compression post) and I can raise and lower the mast with my upper shrouds tight. Thanks for the ideas guys.