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Stanchion Re-Installation

terry_thatcher

Terence Thatcher
As I may have mentioned in previous posts, I stripped most fittings off my 382 to have it painted. Getting to some of the nuts on some items was not easy--anchor rollers and forward cleats and chocks for instance. One of the hardest tasks was getting the stanchion bases off. I had to cut a hole in the head locker and also remove cabinetry in the galley and main cabin. Morgan, damn them, had not installed backing plates--just small washers and nuts, then a glob of caulking over the nut. In some cases, because of the limited access and inability to remove all the caulking, I had to drill off the heads of the mounting bolts on deck. I also noticed that the stanchion bases themselves were not thick enough: that is, a couple of them had bent out away from the glass bulwark. Finally, the stanchions themselves are pretty small gauge tubing and susceptible to bending ( I have already repaired two over the years.) When I re-installed everything I made the following changes: I added 1/8" stainless plates welded to the bases, to strengthen them; I had my machinist sleeve the stanchions with stainless tubing inside the original stanchions and pulpit legs, again for strength; and I made threaded 1/4" stainless backing plates for all stanchion bases. (The pulpit legs, actually, were bent, so we cut, removed, and replaced two of the legs.) When I installed the stanchion bases, I bolted them directly to the threaded backing plates and the backing plates themselves are now glued to the inside of the bulwark with Sikaflex 291LOT. That means I will not have to gain access to the inside of the bulwark if I ever need to remove a stanchion base. I was amazed and discouraged to discover that the mounting hole locations on each stanchion base were different--unbelievable. Didn't the machine shop (JTR in Florida, I think) have a jig to make these pieces? They should have been identical, but were not. Luckily my machinist noticed the discrepancy and made each backing plate to match each specific base. That also means that the holes in the boat are different for each stanchion base, but I was able to match them upon installation. Anyway, my lifelines and stanchion are, after 40 years, finally properly installed and might even be strong enough to serve their purpose now.
 
Good grief! That sounds like a lot of work, Terry. Do you have any pictures? If you need a hand posting them ... if you could email to me, I'll post them.
 
Terry

Having had to remove the galley furniture to replace a long section of the cap rail teak a number of years ago, I understand the process of getting access to those bases. I can only hope that I never have to do the job you undertook. Kudos to you. The threaded backing plate idea is brilliant.

Jim
 
Terry, great topic and effort on your part. Thanks for the enlightenment. Every time I take some of the headliner out, I look at any stanchion mount and think it looks a little less than robust. Luckily I don't find any bending or leaks, but your findings and assessments are definitive and compelling. Will have to plan remediation on my boat in the future.
 
Even when new the bases showed signs of deformation.
I had doubled up the stanchion bases and the pulpit bases to 1/4" with backing plates back in the '80s. Cut holes in the headliners for access and patched with 6"x10" 1/8 " teak cover panels.
 
Even when new the bases showed signs of deformation.
I had doubled up the stanchion bases and the pulpit bases to 1/4" with backing plates back in the '80s. Cut holes in the headliners for access and patched with 6"x10" 1/8 " teak cover panels.
Sounds like a good solution. Nice work!
 
What a job and a smart thing to do! You are right about inadequate backing plates. This is not limited to just stanchions. My port stern cleat is currently twisted almost completely out of my boat from hurricane Zeta. A tiny backing plate. Once I am able to figure our how to get it off, I will go back with wider and longer backing plate, maybe a beefy-er cleat as well as it was hard to get two lines on each cleat when preparing for hurricanes. In Morgan's defense, my boat did catch hell in my last hurricane hole in the bay of Bay St Louis Ms. Zeta's eye wall went over it at 105 sustained winds. Many boats washed ashore next to me so I guess should not complain. Glad it is December, I ran from 5 hurricanes this season, 30 miles one way in some cases. I did more motoring than sailing this summer.
 
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