S/V Rainshadow

OK, so the sailing season is over for us, and I have started several projects, including tearing down the boom.

Looking forward, it’s pretty clear that eventually our chainplates will need replacing. Crevice corrosion is almost impossible to stop, and is likely to lead to eventual failure. Whether that is one year from now, or twenty is not clear. We still have nine more chainplates to pull – the first three showed modest corrosion. What […]

While Luke was home from university for spring break, we decided that with his help, it was time to send Van up the mast. We had some burned out light bulbs, and Van wanted to inspect the rigging up there.

The Camper and Nicholsons 38 “hairpin” design for the chain plates is robust and redundant – and like any stainless part on the boat, crevice corrosion is the enemy. Here are some thoughts about why the design is so good and should help prevent dismasting even if one of the rods fails.

As Brion Toss said at this year’s Seattle Boat show, if your boat is more than 20 years old and has spent any time at all in warm climates, you have to pull those chain plates. So during that nice sunny spell we had recently, we did pull a few, and Brion was right – […]