Caravelle -Chain Plates

May 4, 2015
82
Hello All

I have seen some posts in relation to chain plates. My intent is to pull them this winter, to inspect and address carbon steel backing plate. These came up in the survey (visible rust staining on inside of side shell) and with the insurance company, as a critical structural member their condition at 50 year needs to be assessed. I am 2 thousand miles from where I keep my boat, but my question is can they be accessed without any destructive removal of joiner/ceiling? The links to previous pictures are not live anymore. Any information you can provide would be really helpful for evaluating this job with the boat yard.

Best Regards,

Lloyd
 
May 4, 2015
82
Scott, this is very helpful many thanks! Does it look like you can access them without significant removal of the ceiling? Is that a grounding cable attached there? I would be curious to understand your grounding arrangement for lightening is this something you addressed?
 

SKraft

.
Oct 15, 2010
45
Someone with very long arms and a very long socket can access the chain plates by removing the drawers in the settee back and the settee itself. The ground was on the boat when we purchased her 19 years ago. It runs directly to a keel bolt.
 

CaravelaofExe

Alden Forum Moderator
Jan 24, 2006
221
Alden Caravelle 42 / Northern European waters
The key thing is that (at least on Halmatic hulls), whilst there is indeed a (not stainless) steel chain plate stud threads-locating backing plate encapsulated inside the "top-hat" frame, surely what's doing the work is the laminate integrity of the top-hat frame.

The least invasive method of replacing the backing plates discussed on older threads at this forum is: opening the bottom only of top hat frame (properly a bit more like the "hanging knee" of a wood yacht); extracting the old backing plate vertically; replicating in stainless steel.

I believe there is at least one instance discussed somewhere here of the job being done - on a Challenger, Zephyr or Mistral (can't remember which) by intervention from outside, which seems rather drastic.

As far as I know here is no known instance of a top-hat frame/chainplate arrangement total failure on a Challenger / Zephyr / Mistral / Caravelle.