Fitting Out | Deck Hardware

While I was struggling with the ventilators, I started to fit the deck hardware.

Some of the machine screws provided are too long because they are fastened with dome nuts and have to be exactly the right length.

This means careful measurement and cutting and filing, like this.

I also needed to purchase quite a lot of new fastenings because of the way I had installed the boom gallows tubes and stern mooring cleats.

And then came the challenge of drilling exactly perpendicular holes through the blocking inside the seatback tops. This is extremely difficult to do freehand, so I used my drill guide.

Here it is being used to drill holes for the boom gallows stanchion supports.

This was fine for the two holes in the front of the fitting, but there was no room to use the drill guide for the two rearmost holes. So, I inserted a length of threaded rod in one of the holes I had already drilled to act as sighting guide when drilling by eye. Like this.

The resulting holes were not perfect but were good enough for a secure fit.

I had a lot of trouble with the stanchion support on the port side of the boat. The support tube did not fit into it and I assumed that it was the wrong size at 7/8" instead of 1".

The kit supplier sent me a replacement which fitted the tube but had an uneven bottom which caused it rock on the seatback top. So that was no good.

So, another replacement was sent and that cured the problem.

I now had two unusable stanchion supports sitting on my shelf and when I compared them I quickly saw that the first one was in fact the right size but had not been machined correctly.

You really do have to wonder about the manufacturer's quality control, or lack thereof.

Final installation of various bits of hardware followed, entailing bedding them in marine sealant.

This is what I am using.

It is Geocel Marine, formerly known as Dow Corning and highly recommended.

We use silicone rubber sealant on fixtures and fittings which do not require permanent installation.

I bought this tube three years ago when fitting inspection ports in the centreboard case and bulkhead 1 and I wondered if it was past its use-by date. The vendor didn't seem to know so I cut the nozzle and tried some out. It looked fine and set nicely so I am using it for the rest of the hardware.

Methylated spirit and kitchen roll clean up any squeeze out easily.

Here is one of the stern mooring cleats, sealed in place.

And here is the starboard stanchion support with boom gallows tube fitted.

Here is the port fitting.

Sockets are needed to get to the nuts inside the seatback locker, and a screwdriver to hold the screw while it is being tightened.

I found that a syringe was quite useful for accurate application, like this.

The drawback is that the sealant hardens in the syringe nozzle so it cannot be reused.

I eventually did the final fit of the hardware in the forward deck well and cabin roof.

Here are the starboard halyard cleats.

And here are the starboard jib sheet cleat and halyard cheek blocks.

This is the hardware on the forward deck and tabernacle. You can see the forward mooring cleats, the jib halyard cleat, and the starboard halyard lead blocks.

The only piece of deck hardware which I could not fit was the mainsheet ratchet block, which will be the subject of the next post.