Hi Brian, Ouch -- yes, that is fairly extensive damage, but anything is repairable. Was the welded chainplate on the inside damaged as well? I am talking about the part with the tang that the forestay actually attaches to)? You will want to remove it entirely and inspect carefully for cracks.
I suspect you will need to fabricate (or have fabricated for you) a new stainless steel plate on the outside at a minimum. However, that is a fairly simple part as it is just a flat piece of stainless steel cut to the correct shape with countersunk holes. McMasterCarr sells the stock you will need in small quantities: https://www.mcmaster.com/stainless-steel-plate/corrosion-resistant-316-stainless-steel-6/ and a local machine shop should be able to do the machining if you don't have the tools to do it yourself. If you are handy with cad (on-shape is a free online program for personal projects) then you can also use a company like Xometry online to have it fabricated elsewhere (they can do welding etc. to - you just have to request it). My recommendation for the fiberglass is to grind out the damaged area entirely and then create as shallow a taper as you can (at least a 12/1 slope) from there going outwards in all directions on the sides of the hull. If the resulting hole is large, it may be helpful to glue a thin sheet of pre-cured but flexible fiberglass laminate (could start with G10 from mcmastercarr) on the inside to provide a backing plate to lay up the new glass against, or you could create an inside mold with wood that is shaped to match the inside of the hull and wrapped in release cloth and braced inside the chain locker. Then cut and layer in glass cloth soaked in epoxy that gradually increases in size and rotate every layer by 45 deg to create a quasi-isotropic laminate. (If you build up to about the same thickness, then the end result will be stronger than the original). Use a long-working time epoxy (at least several hours) and I recommend using a vacuum bagging system with bags on the inside and outside) to create compression and remove voids as the epoxy cures. Depending on total thickness it may be a good idea to do this in several steps with half a dozen layers each, sanding and cleaning the surface before each subsequent lamination to remove the amine blush. Finally sand/grid smooth, use epoxy filler for any diviots and sand again / repeat until smooth. Prime and paint. If the rest of the hull is the original gel coat and you don't want to paint it all, you could consider making just the bow a contrasting color with a straight vertical edge between the paint and gel coat (it could look good, even intentional). Was the aluminum bow casting also damaged? If so, I have one from my 1981 C&C 34 I can send you (I replaced it with a custom one to add an anchor roller last year). The only challenge is that the pin for the forestay is seized so that will take some work to remove or drill it out. I used the original chainplates so I don't have those as extras. However, a possibility is if you can find a boat that was salvaged and they kept the chainplates you might be able to get them relatively inexpensively. I wonder what happened to Rob Ball's 34 after it sank and the insurance company totaled it? Nathan S/V Wisper Lynn, MA 1981 C&C 34 On Sat, Sep 25, 2021 at 8:45 AM Brian Morrison via CnC-List < cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: > Hello All, > > I had an unfortunate encounter with a buoy and my 1979 C&C 34 suffered > pretty severe damage to the bow. The chain plate for the forestay was bent > and needs to be replaced. There is some fiberglass repair needed as well. > I’m thinking of fixing it myself. Anyone know where I can get a chain > plate/backing plate from. And, advice on repairing the fiberglass. I’m > located in Baltimore, MD. See pics attached. > > Thanks > Brian > > > Thanks to all of the subscribers that contributed to the list to help with > the costs involved. If you want to show your support to the list - use > PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray Thanks > - Stu
Thanks to all of the subscribers that contributed to the list to help with the costs involved. If you want to show your support to the list - use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray Thanks - Stu
