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T&T: Backing Plates

From: Rich Gano (no email)
Date: Wed Jun 27 2007 - 13:20:48 EDT

  • Next message: Cameron King: "Re: T&T: Broken Bolt on my Lehman 120 Exhaust Manifold"

    Note: wooden boat spoken of here.

    I mounted a big honking manual bronze winch on the centerline on the aft
    deck (fantail to the more nautically inclined) last year. (For you GB
    owners, it's under the forward-canted taffrail so as not to be a tripping
    hazard.) I used a six foot long 3/4-inch thick red oak board placed
    athwartships under the winch base, and I through-bolted the winch to it. I
    figured the sideways stresses could get pretty hefty and wanted a LOT of
    decking and sub-decking backing this thing up as the forces try to tip it
    over. I used no bedding because I wanted no moisture collection under there
    on the off chance some deck leak were to develop. I doubt seriously any
    leak will develop under the winch itself. Even if it does leak, it will be
    salty (thus, no wood rot) since I rinse the boat often with salt water.
    Access underneath is easy from the laz.

    Although I did not use it on the two extra cleats I added many years ago
    alongside the anchor windlass, I think a good sized chunk of stainless or a
    CPES-saturated chunk of high-density wood would be a good thing to use to
    back up the every-day cleat. Unless the access is difficult to impossible,
    I would opt for something removable, which through-bolting allows. Luckily,
    I had access. I drilled through the deck for the first of four holes and
    then drilled one hole in the backer before going below to lightly cinch a
    nut on the bolt. The other bolt holes were then drilled in one pass through
    deck and backing block before removing them all to apply bedding to the
    cleat. This is easier if you have a helper - I didn't, and a vice grip on
    the nut wedged against something below was helpful in final tightening.

    Fitting four bolts (my cleats are big enough to handle 3/4-inch line) to
    threaded holes on a pattern on a section of stainless (or any other metal
    for that matter) would not seem to be any easier than through bolting, at
    least on an existing vessel. Embedding a threaded stainless plate in a boat
    under construction is a "'nother whole question." If there was any option
    in the construction, I'd still like the option of accessible through-bolts.
    Maybe that's cuz I consider my whole boat nothing but a big Tinker Toy
    anyway and can think of few if anything I haven't removed or messed with in
    some way needing partial deconstruction since 1986.

    Rich Gano
    CALYPSO (GB-42-295)
    Southport, FL
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  • Next message: Cameron King: "Re: T&T: Broken Bolt on my Lehman 120 Exhaust Manifold"



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