Chainplates are finished, sailing next week?

By Sailor Keddy -
I honestly didn't think this winter was going to end. Even after the first sail on Lyra, even after 7 charters on Weatherly, living aboard through a blizzard, a hurricane, countless smaller snow storms, freezing fog, a desk job, and a troop of high school swimmers, it still seems surreal I'm on the other side of it. Friends are making their way back into town, and have been trickling in over the past couple of weeks. Every day I count more boats in the anchorage and mooring field. The pulse of Newport slowly begins to strengthen as she shakes off a long, cold hibernation. It was a strange path that led me back here and this past winter punctuated it well.

Soveraine is reborn as well, and when I get a new turnbuckle this afternoon she will be seaworthy for the first time since I've had her, and I'd guess a long bit before then too. The chainplates are finally complete and they mark the end of a long, long list of essential items I knew I had to tackle when I purchased her at the end of last June.


After a new bowsprit, cushions, a complete new installation of cabin and running lights with wiring, plumbing a head and new holding tank, removing and installing the transmission, some interior paint, all that really remains is some rigging work and paint. The upshot for readers of this blog is that there will be less talk of repairs and much more talk of sailing! Weatherly has been going very well, I'll have some pictures and videos sailing her soon, as well as Soveraine when I leave the dock in a week or two.

Here are some pictures of the chainplate installtion, first the plate was cut into strips:


Then I bent them using a pipe wrench and a vice at the trailer of Nefertiti, this required a lot of bike riding back and forth to my boat to make sure they were bent just right.


Once they were all bent to shape I had holes cut in them and the backing plates to match. 46 holes in total!


Once that was completed, it was only a matter of placing them on the hull where I wanted, drilling the holes through the hull and bolting them through the backing plates on the other side. Easier said than done, there were shelves in the way and some of the holes were not lining up with the backing plates. Then the rigging was hooked up, here is the first one completed:


Then just yesterday I cut the tops of the old chainplates that went through the deck with a grinder. I'll fiberglass or epoxy over them to seal them up.




Comments

Anonymous said…
Keep up the good work sailing scholar!
May 10, 2013 at 7:41 AM
sgkuhner said…
Scott, You are doing great work on Your Seawind. It reminds me of all the work we did on Bebinka. In New Zealand, we re-rigged her with galvanized steel rigging wire and soaked them in boiled linseed oil before putting them up. Four years later there was absolutely NO rust anywhere on the rigging. Also, when we were in South Africa, I found some rot in our bowsprit and so I made a new one for good old Bebinka. You are going to love your boat when you finally get out to sea and you will have an adventure that will define your life. Good Luck Scott and I love your blog and being able to keep up with your progress. You, my friend, are living a rich and wonderful life. Having a rich life does not mean making a lot of money it means living your life to the fullest.
May 17, 2013 at 9:49 PM
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