J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Examine the chainplates

Was up in the boat this afternoon with the moisture meter and for once things have gone my way. The area directly behind the chainplates is dry. The area is ugly to look at though. I didn't poke around, but this almost seemed like it might be a plywood bulkhead, rather than one that is balsa cored. Could that be the case? Since it is dry my plan is to swab some slightly thickened epoxy around in the bolt holes, but that is it. I will inspect around the hole through the deck more too when the tarp is off again, but the surveyor hadn't marked that area up.

When I replaced my chain plates last year my shop salvaged the old chain plates to become chain plate backing plates. Mine weren't too bad either but they had served for 35 years. One less thing to worry about. My bulkhead and deck were dry thankfully.

My fab shop is doing that for me now with the old chainplates. What still surprised me was that the sealer around the chainplate had become so brittle, it was almost dust. Equally amazing is that in that condition it was still keeping water out (or maybe it wasn't anymore). I would venture that 3M 5200 was used originally or something similar. I wonder if the chainplates heating up in the sun over many years may have totally baked the sealer?

Yes there is a triangular area around the chainplates that is made from plywood while the rest of the bulkhead is balsa. My portside bulkhead is rotten and is going in for repairs later this week.

I swear the portside of these boats was made by the night crew while they smoked weed or something. Everything is worse on the portside of my boat.

On Rhapsody it must have been the same crew on topside port, and below the waterline on starboard. I saw a J/109 having core work done at International Marine because it failed an inspection survey on a sale pending last year. You could see a greasy footprint on top of the balsa core on the port side next to the engine where it delaminated. That's just carelessness.

I come from a steel manufacturing background. I get that there are a ton of variables that go into making something. One of those very big variables is the people doing the work and the care they take doing their jobs. Quality is everyone's responsibility up and down an organization. Poor work ethic and poor product doesn't happen in a vacuum.

I like to joke about what happens at night because when I worked in the field in the mines that is when most things broke. Now there were some legitimate reasons why that actually happened, but it was also the B or C crews that worked then. The capable long term folks had the day shift and there was some actual management around.