I am renovating my Y 25 and found that the wood inside the cabin on the starboard side which connecting to the big bolts are softed, I think it is caused by the water leakage. I would like to know is that a serious problem and how can I fix it. and I would like to know whether there are any construction plan about it so that I can know how it is constructed. Thanks very much. henry
chainplate leak on a Y25
- Thread starter Henry Fung
- Start date
- Status
Any compromising of chainplate attachment
points to the hull is of serious concern. You will never know when the next time the wind pipes up and your shrouds or stays get loose or pop out. If the mast and rigging fall over you will be sorry you did not fix this problem beforehand. I suggest you check all your chainplates attachment points and repair as necessary. You also need to bed the chainplate on the deck with a marine caulk or 3M 4200 or similar to keep the water out in the first place. Our chainplates on our Tartan 27 are fastened to the hull differently than your Yamaha so I suggest you check with the manufacturer for specifics or use google to find some helpful advice. Also check this site under Resources, choose Yamaha and see what you can find. Good luck.
points to the hull is of serious concern. You will never know when the next time the wind pipes up and your shrouds or stays get loose or pop out. If the mast and rigging fall over you will be sorry you did not fix this problem beforehand. I suggest you check all your chainplates attachment points and repair as necessary. You also need to bed the chainplate on the deck with a marine caulk or 3M 4200 or similar to keep the water out in the first place. Our chainplates on our Tartan 27 are fastened to the hull differently than your Yamaha so I suggest you check with the manufacturer for specifics or use google to find some helpful advice. Also check this site under Resources, choose Yamaha and see what you can find. Good luck.
Henry
I found another photo of a Y25 interior showing both chainplates on this site.http://www.sailboatowners.com/album/display.htm?fno=400&id=73259662466 I could not find any mention of others having chainplate problems. You may not get much info from the company as they dont make this boat any longer. I am not sure how handy (skilled with tools, wood, epoxy etc) you are but you might consider finding a good boatyard or boatworker to contract the work out to if you are not up to the job. That way you can blame someone else if you do not like the way the job comes out. Ha-ha. If you want to do this yourself and possibly save some money and learn something along the way then that is what you will do. 1. Your boats mast is deck stepped, no? You will want to take an unused haliard over to the starboard side and attach it to a cleat somewhere to give support to the mast before you remove the stay and chainplate. I also assume that your boat is in the water now. 2. Once you loosen the turnbuckle on the correct shroud (you probably have 2 shrouds per port/stbd - lower and upper shrouds, if you do so much the better to support the mast in an upright position), remove the cotter pin then clevis pin and the shroud is free. 3. Once the shroud is free and the mast has not fallen down you can remove the bolts from the stbd chainplate. Examine the wood more carefully through the holes that are now exposed. Is the wood really spongy and soft? This piece of wood forms a bulkhead that takes the load of the shroud and distributes it. How is this piece of wood attached to the ceiling, side of cabin and floor? Or will it just pop out with some pulling? (Your photo makes it look as if there are two pieces of wood that make up the bulkhead, is this right? Or is it one piece with a groove on the outside edge?) 4. Get the piece of wood out. Use a smallish chisel and hammer to free it from the wall, ceiling floor unless it is bolted in, in which case remove the bolts. Try not to destroy this piece of wood as it can be used as a rough template for what you will need to make. 5. Do you know what kind of wood this is? Is it solid wood or laminated plywood? It looks like teak to me but everything wooden on sailboats looks like teak to me. Measure the old piece and find a distributor for teak, mahogany or whatever wood it is and buy an appropriate amount (more than you actually need). 6. Fabricate a new piece of wood using the template. I would make it a few mm or 1/16 inch bigger and then sand it down in order to get a tight fit. 7. Thoroughly finish the wood with varnish or finish of your choice that closely matches the rest of the interior. 8. Re-fasten bolts you took out. Be careful to drill the holes for the chainplate in almost the same place as the old piece. You do not want the chainplate sticking up higher on deck or too low for the pins to be able to connect. 9. Looks like the only "epoxy" like work is on the ceiling around the bulkhead board you want to replace. Material like 3M 4200 or MarineTex white could be used. Be careful not to make a mess with this stuff. 10. RE-BED the chainplates on-deck with marine caulk or 3M 4200 or equivalent. You might want to do this EVERY year or two; more often if you think water is coming in from on deck. You need to do this whether you replace the bulkhead wood or not. Your photo is a little over-exposed. Is there a discoloration of the finish on the wood by the chainplate or is that only in the photo. Also, I can not tell how spongy the wood is from the photo but the wood looks to be in pretty good shape. The spots you really need to check for rot are underneath the chainplate itself. If there is any rot I would consider replacing it. If no rot then you might choose to just re-finish this piece (if it needs it). I would take the boat out in some wind (10-15) with a trusted sailor friend and go on a starboard tack and you go below to watch the bulkhead and see if it flexes or moves in any way. I would then repeat the procedure on a port tack. If the same thing happens on both tacks it is probably just fine and all you need is some varnish on the interior and your favorite beverage to enjoy. Another thing to think about. When was the boat looked at by a surveyor (professional marine insurance evaluator - I dont know what they are called in HK)? They usually write a written report of problems they find on a particular boat. If you can not get a recent survey you might consider hiring your own surveyor to look at this and everything on the boat. A good surveyor can be worth the cost (here $350 US). There may be other more pressing items that need to be addressed before this chainplate situation (like new standing rigging, packing gland stuffing replacement or whatever). That is all I can think about for now. I hope this helps from half a world away. Good luck.
I found another photo of a Y25 interior showing both chainplates on this site.http://www.sailboatowners.com/album/display.htm?fno=400&id=73259662466 I could not find any mention of others having chainplate problems. You may not get much info from the company as they dont make this boat any longer. I am not sure how handy (skilled with tools, wood, epoxy etc) you are but you might consider finding a good boatyard or boatworker to contract the work out to if you are not up to the job. That way you can blame someone else if you do not like the way the job comes out. Ha-ha. If you want to do this yourself and possibly save some money and learn something along the way then that is what you will do. 1. Your boats mast is deck stepped, no? You will want to take an unused haliard over to the starboard side and attach it to a cleat somewhere to give support to the mast before you remove the stay and chainplate. I also assume that your boat is in the water now. 2. Once you loosen the turnbuckle on the correct shroud (you probably have 2 shrouds per port/stbd - lower and upper shrouds, if you do so much the better to support the mast in an upright position), remove the cotter pin then clevis pin and the shroud is free. 3. Once the shroud is free and the mast has not fallen down you can remove the bolts from the stbd chainplate. Examine the wood more carefully through the holes that are now exposed. Is the wood really spongy and soft? This piece of wood forms a bulkhead that takes the load of the shroud and distributes it. How is this piece of wood attached to the ceiling, side of cabin and floor? Or will it just pop out with some pulling? (Your photo makes it look as if there are two pieces of wood that make up the bulkhead, is this right? Or is it one piece with a groove on the outside edge?) 4. Get the piece of wood out. Use a smallish chisel and hammer to free it from the wall, ceiling floor unless it is bolted in, in which case remove the bolts. Try not to destroy this piece of wood as it can be used as a rough template for what you will need to make. 5. Do you know what kind of wood this is? Is it solid wood or laminated plywood? It looks like teak to me but everything wooden on sailboats looks like teak to me. Measure the old piece and find a distributor for teak, mahogany or whatever wood it is and buy an appropriate amount (more than you actually need). 6. Fabricate a new piece of wood using the template. I would make it a few mm or 1/16 inch bigger and then sand it down in order to get a tight fit. 7. Thoroughly finish the wood with varnish or finish of your choice that closely matches the rest of the interior. 8. Re-fasten bolts you took out. Be careful to drill the holes for the chainplate in almost the same place as the old piece. You do not want the chainplate sticking up higher on deck or too low for the pins to be able to connect. 9. Looks like the only "epoxy" like work is on the ceiling around the bulkhead board you want to replace. Material like 3M 4200 or MarineTex white could be used. Be careful not to make a mess with this stuff. 10. RE-BED the chainplates on-deck with marine caulk or 3M 4200 or equivalent. You might want to do this EVERY year or two; more often if you think water is coming in from on deck. You need to do this whether you replace the bulkhead wood or not. Your photo is a little over-exposed. Is there a discoloration of the finish on the wood by the chainplate or is that only in the photo. Also, I can not tell how spongy the wood is from the photo but the wood looks to be in pretty good shape. The spots you really need to check for rot are underneath the chainplate itself. If there is any rot I would consider replacing it. If no rot then you might choose to just re-finish this piece (if it needs it). I would take the boat out in some wind (10-15) with a trusted sailor friend and go on a starboard tack and you go below to watch the bulkhead and see if it flexes or moves in any way. I would then repeat the procedure on a port tack. If the same thing happens on both tacks it is probably just fine and all you need is some varnish on the interior and your favorite beverage to enjoy. Another thing to think about. When was the boat looked at by a surveyor (professional marine insurance evaluator - I dont know what they are called in HK)? They usually write a written report of problems they find on a particular boat. If you can not get a recent survey you might consider hiring your own surveyor to look at this and everything on the boat. A good surveyor can be worth the cost (here $350 US). There may be other more pressing items that need to be addressed before this chainplate situation (like new standing rigging, packing gland stuffing replacement or whatever). That is all I can think about for now. I hope this helps from half a world away. Good luck.
Similar problem
I have seen the same sort of problem on some Ericsons (including mine) and a number of owners have installed "sister" plates that are just extensions of the chainplate and take the load all the way to where the bulkhead is connected to the hull. On the Ericsons, the bulkhead is bolted in several places to the liner/hull flanges that actually locate the bulkhead in the right position. We use a little larger bolts than the factory did at these flanges and the extender plates (made of stainless steel the same thickness as the chainplates) go all the way down to catch one or more of these bolts. The extender "sister" plate goes on the opposite side of the bulkhead than the chainplate, so you can use the existing lower chainplate bolts.
I have seen the same sort of problem on some Ericsons (including mine) and a number of owners have installed "sister" plates that are just extensions of the chainplate and take the load all the way to where the bulkhead is connected to the hull. On the Ericsons, the bulkhead is bolted in several places to the liner/hull flanges that actually locate the bulkhead in the right position. We use a little larger bolts than the factory did at these flanges and the extender plates (made of stainless steel the same thickness as the chainplates) go all the way down to catch one or more of these bolts. The extender "sister" plate goes on the opposite side of the bulkhead than the chainplate, so you can use the existing lower chainplate bolts.
Do you have any photos?
Hi Bob, not very sure , could you have some photos showing the configuration? many thanks. henry Hong Kong
Hi Bob, not very sure , could you have some photos showing the configuration? many thanks. henry Hong Kong
- Status