Re-sealing the Shroud Chain Plates

The shroud chain plates on the starboard side had been leaking behind our dagger board for quite a while now, but we hadn't had the time to get it with our never-ending list of to do's. 

We finally decided to reseal them and were somewhat surprised (well we should've known) to discover that the chain plates were installed straight through our cored deck and were only sealed in with Sikaflex! Similar to how all our other deck fittings were installed.. 😒

Needless to say, water had seeped through and rotted a whole lot of our balsa core around the chain plates.  
 

Releasing the tension of the shrouds

Sealed in with Sikaflex

Tied the shrouds onto the side cleat, Alex removing the AIS antenna cable

Removing the chain plates was a bit of a challenge. Can't help but wonder why most things on board the boat are installed in such a way that's not designed to be accessed or replaced ... ever? (when in reality, everything on a boat needs to be repaired/replaced/maintained at some point, no matter how well designed or installed it is)

Had to saw off the head of the bolt in order to remove it

Chain plates removed, digging out the Sikaflex

Clearly damp

After tapping on the deck around the chain plates Alex was convinced that the water leak had spread

Carefully removing the top layer of the deck

Rotted wood

Eek - just as suspected

Soaked

Not good

After clearing out the rotted wood

While I dried it out with the heat gun

Alex cut out strips of wood (teak) to fill the hole

All clean and dry - ready to be filled

More epoxy work

Not easy working after dark - having to shine the light and fight off mozzies

The cut out wood fit perfectly

In hindsight, we should've stuck masking tape onto the surface to minimise 
the epoxy mess (oh well)

What it looked like the next day - the holes are now sealed with epoxy

Alex decided to make a plate that fits nicely around the chain plates to protect the sikaflex and hopefully prevent water from seeping through?

Sealed the chain plates and plate in place with Sikaflex

A close up photo

Once fully dried, we re-attached the shrouds

We repeated the process on the port side. Fortunately there was no leak there, so we didn't have to cut out a section of the deck. However, after we re-sealed the chain plates and re-attached the shrouds, for some reason the middle shroud on the port side would not tention above the spreader.

Update: Check out our Spreader Maintenance post.