“This is our chainplate. There are many like it, but this one is ours.”

Dawn worked on the chainplates this weekend and here’s proof of progress. For our friends and family who don’t have boats, the chainplates bolt to the boat below decks and are the mechanical connection of the rig (the sail part of the boat) to the hull.

When we took the rig down we pull the chainplates and polished them. Getting them nice and clean not only looks good but the smoother and shinier they are the less likely they are to corrode in the future. It takes a LOT of elbow grease to sand them with progressively finer and finer sand papers all the way down to 1200 grit.

If you look at the picture above you will the part sticking and a plate screwed to the deck. The plates are actually a separate piece of metal. The verticalstructural piece you see sticking up is about 18” long and extends down below decks and it bolted to the boat. Dawn use butyl rope caulk left over from our portlight installation to seal the hole and then put the chainplate covers on with 3M 4200.

This is a sign we’re getting close to restepping the masts which means we’ll have a sailboat again!