My Second Morgan Invasion - Part 2
While I was at the 20th Annual Morgan Invasion, I asked a couple of people including Charlie Morgan, what I should consider in repairing the damage to the bulkhead which the chainplate connects to. I received a couple of suggestions. They were:
1: Replace the entire bulkhead. (Maybe sailing in a year)
2: Cut out the rotten wood, patch with wood/fiberglass and add a larger backing plate. (Maybe sailing in a month)
After looking at the damage, I decided go with Charlie Morgan’s advice. I would do a wood/plywood patch and a larger backing plate but I would also extend the chainplate to approx 20” instead of the original 7 ½”. (I wanted to be sailing a month)
I started working on the repair by taking measurements of where the chainplate used to be on both the port and starboard sides. Then after borrowing a cutter from my son, I started cutting on the Formica that covered the port side bulkhead. The cutter was a carbide blade that had only short teeth but would cut even metal if needed. I cut a square of about 12” by 12” cutting out the wood , I tried to keep the edges straight. While I was cutting, the blade created a lot of smoke and dust and after only a short time I was required to put on a gas mask and eye protection to continue. After examination of the wood at the edges of the initial hole, I decided to try cutting a little more down the bulkhead thinking the wood was not too good yet. I cut almost 7 more inches down and found the wood to be very solid. With all solid wood showing I cleaned up the hole so I could put together a good plan. I cut out a cardboard piece to fit the hole and then started looking for some plywood to use for this project. From the local Lowes Home Improvement Store, I bought a sheet of pressure treated exterior plywood. Cutting out a piece that was roughly the same size as the cardboard one I got it ready for installing.
I had decided to insert bolts into the good wood and use a sort of interlocking system with the plywood to make the patch tie in with the remaining original bulkhead. Using 5/16 X 3” stainless lag bolts, I inserted the bolts leaving about 1” showing yet. They were in tight in good wood and would hold a lot as long as they were tied in to the patch securely. Cutting T shaped slots in the plywood, I had the plywood ready to slide over the bolts. With the plywood ready, I started the fiberglass part of the patch. Putting in 3 layers of glass on the back side I glassed in the snug fitting plywood. Quickly, I mixed a batch of fiber strand enforced patch and filled in the holes and tried to level out the patch so the cloth and resin would be easy to lay in. The patch was still setting up when I started putting resin and the first layer of cloth on the front side. Using larger pieces of cloth each time, I put on 5-6 layers of cloth with the final 4 layers being large enough to be glassed to the to the hull. Now it was time for a little more patch to fill in enough to make the patch smooth so I could make it ready for the paint and connecting the chainplate extensions and the 20 inch backing plates. After some sanding and more filling, I finally had the patch smooth enough.
I painted the patch trying to match the color of white already on the bulkhead. I had ordered a couple of 3ft anodized aluminum bars from McMaster Carr, that were 2” by 3/8” thick. While the paint was drying I cut the 3/8”anodized aluminum bar so that I would have a 20” backing plate and enough for the front to overlap the existing chainplate. I lined up the top hole in the chainplate extension with the bottom, hole in the chainplate and drilled the first hole so it would tie into the chainplate and then extend downward to match up with the 20” backing plate. Using a torch, I heated the aluminum bar so I could put a ¼” offset in it so it would bolt to the chainplate and then bolt flush to the bulkhead. With the chainplate extension & backing plate drilled, I mounted and through bolted them onto the repaired bulkhead. With the chainplate firmly in place it was time to seal around the chainplate on the deck and clean up the boat. The starboard side also looked like it might have some rotten wood but after cutting away the Formica, I found solid wood, so I just fiberglassed over the wood to smooth it up with the Formica and installed an extended chainplate and backing plate to match the new port side hardware. The two repairs look exceptionally strong, with the six ½” bolts connecting the chainplate/extension with the 20” backing plate. It maybe an overkill, but I will never worry about having a problem with the chainplate again under normal sailing conditions.
Total cost including the plywood, aluminum straps, 12 bolts, resin, cloth, filler, & lag bolts came to 171.40. Labor came to about 35 hours. For a failure of this type, I came out pretty good on the cost part of it.