J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Rudder(s)

Well the small drill bit approach did not work. The holes in these brackets are too badly misaligned. I can't tell if this is from when it was originally manufactured, or if somewhere along the line they were bent somehow. So my plan is to drill these all out to 3/4" fill them with epoxy thickened with CS. Then when I do a final assembly I will drill the holes oversized for the bolts again and then install the bolts lathered up in 5200.

These holes are slightly overfilled because I have learned that as soon as you leave the room the air bubbles finally rise up and pop. You can sit there all day and wait for this to happen and try to refill the hole, or you can leave the room so it can get on with the process. Epoxy doesn't shrink, but trapped air can really change the volume as the air slowly escapes.

So the next step is the glasswork. I have to either get on that, or put it off a few days. The shop gets overrun at Christmas with a very large HO race car track.

Remember, Christmas is about toys for boys