Broken chainplates, Help!

[dongato]

I have a 1986 Hunter 31'

All of the stays are attached to a deck mounted fitting which is welded to a rod that goes through the deck. The rod was attached to some sort of metal backing plate that was made of steel. This plate has disinegrated on the starboard side and my mainstays are very loose. There is only a small slot where the rod goes through the liner. I can only see the huge nut on the end of the rod. On the port side I can see that the rod goes through a metal plate which is also rusted and about to crumble.

The problem is that there seems to be no acces to get to the backing plate and replace it without cutting some sort of access hole which I believe would weaken the structure.

It appears that the backing plate was installed before the liner. I can't believe that they didn't allow for some way to access this for repairs.

Has anyone ever had this problem? Could you offer some advice how to repair this.

Any advice would be appreciated. I can supply photos but all you can see is what I have described, which is not much.

Thanks for any advice in advance.

dongato
sv Seaductress
Rio Dulce, Guatemala

 

[Steve Dion]

Check out the archives. There have been several owners with this same problem.

Here is one of the links.
http://forums.hunter.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?p=74715&highlight=rusted chainplate


You will need to remove the old piece and replace it with a new one. I would suggest replacing it with stainless steel if possible.

 

[Steve Dion]

Here is another with the fix.

http://forums.hunter.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?p=671345&highlight=tie rod

 

[dongato]

Thank you for the link Steve.

It describes my problem exactly. It doesn't really give me much info on how to fix the problem though.

I don't like the sugestion of cutting through the hull to access from the outside. Cutting holes in the hull is not something I would want to do. I would much prefer to get at it from the inside. I am concerned about just where to cut to get access. If I cut through the liner below the plate will that cause any weakening of the structure? With all the stays attached to that one point there must be a tremendous amount of pressure on that area.

What really baffles me is why the plate was not made of stainless in the first place. It appears to have been made out of just regular steel. I guess that is the price you pay for buying a production boat. It should have been stainless in the first place then it would never have rusted to dust.

If you know of anyone who can give me more details about how to make this repair I would be very grateful.

Thanks,
dongato

 

[Steve Dion]

Dongato:

The second link show you how to do this repair from the inside. SS would be good, but I think a properly treated piece of steel like in the photo's will work fine for the next 25 years. The original steel appears to be unpainted/untreated, so either should be fine.

 

[dongato]

Thanks again Steve,

That last link gave me photos and some pretty detailed instructions of how others have taken care of this problem.

I really appreciate the help.

I had a couple of other people look at the problem and they were stumped too.

The way the boat is put together you can't even see what is in there so the photos really helped. I think with the help of some of my more mechanically inclined friends we should be able to make this repair much easier than I thought.

Thanks again for your help and fast response to my request for help.

Sincerely,
dongato