Shortly after purchasing our sailboat, we quickly discovered that everything located in or near the head seemed to be leaking. (Ahhh! The joys of boat ownership!)
And since we are currently in the process of re-plumbing the head and have had to remove a wall as part of the project, what better time to rebed the chainplates in this area (since they too were leaking)???
To start this chainplate re-bedding project, Jereme removed the rigging by loosening the turn buckles, making sure to measure them and mark them where they were attached so that he would be able to reattach them in the exact same spot.
Once the shrouds were disconnected, he removed each chainplate cover and unbolted the chainplate (we did one chainplate at a time over the course of 3 days). He then got to work removing the actual chainplate. Let me tell you something, getting the chainplates out took some major muscling and several hours of hard work.
After the plates were free, Jereme thoroughly cleaned them by scrubbing each with WD-40 and using a razor blade to scrape off the old caulk.
^^one sparkling clean chainplate ya’ll! But more importantly, one awesome beard. ;)^^
>>Here’s where this project becomes a butyl tape party.<< 😉
Jereme used butyl tape to rebed (or seal) the chainplates. From our his extensive research, butyl tape is a much better solution for bedding than using silicone or caulk because the tape never dries, always remains flexible, has unlimited working time, isn’t messy, etc. etc. etc. Just a few of the many pros of using this tape.
We’re big butyl tape fans on this boat.
Shout-out to Compass Marine, where we found was the best place to buy butyl tape — plus their website shows you how to use it! We bought 100 feet (or 2 rolls) of bed-it butyl tape from Compass Marine. (We’ve also already used butyl tape to rebed our head tank pump-out fitting.)
After reattaching the chainplates and re-bolting them, Jereme made sure to continuously tighten the nuts every few hours since we used butyl tape. Tightening and re-tightening (multiple times) is necessary because the butyl tape is slow to react (for lack of a better technical description) — every time you tighten it, it squeezes out a little more and more.
^^beautiful butyl tape applied to a chainplate bolt.^^
Then, Jereme rebedded the chainplate cover with…you guessed it…butyl tape!
Once everything was nice and tight, Jereme reattached the shrouds.
Voila! Two of our three port shroud chainplates rebedded.
>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing.