June 3, 2006

Chainplates under way

For the past year the rig has been held in position with short lengths of rope to the rigging wires turbuckles. This has been because we raised the mast so the boom would clear the new cabin. But the mast is rather "loose" and bounces around a lot when a big wake hits the boat.

But now, f
inally, the chainplates are going in. This will be nice as summer (and the jetskiers and wakeboarders) approaches so I can properly tension all the rigging.

You first start with about 30m of carbon fiber unidirectional fabric 300mm wide.


Laminate this over a stainless steel pipe that is suspended in mid air. When hard, cut into individual chainplates. This is hard work - the thick walled s.s. pipe was way overkill (but it's i.d. happened to match the clevis pin diameter). Note to self - next time use just a thin s.s. bushing.

It took 2 hours to cut 3 slices and form the four chainplates into these:




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