Fairleads, cams and roller furling...

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Fairleads, cams and roller furling...

Postby Thomasjbrothersjr » Sun May 12, 2013 3:33 pm

We have finally got the bugs worked out of the Harken Small Boat Furling set up on the Kaleigh B. I am now looking to see how everyone else has set up their furling lines. We have been over-thinking the crap out of this I think. The Harken company gives a layout of the angle off the spool and then back towards the cockpit. I have an aluminum Harken micro-cam. What have the rest of you been doing?

As far as mounting through the deck. My plan was to mark and drill a hole slightly bigger than needed, fill the holes with epoxy, re-drill proper size through the epoxy, between the fittings and the deck i will be using 3M permanent adhesive. For back plates I will be using stainless washers and lock washers and thread lock and nuts.

Thoughts and advice?
"It's not the towering sail, but the unseen wind that moves the ship"

1983 O'Day Daysailer II "KALEIGH B"
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Re: Fairleads, cams and roller furling...

Postby GreenLake » Sun May 12, 2013 8:19 pm

I've never installed a furler (I have a boat with one on it), but I've added some deck hardware. Here are some quick thoughts:

The DS deck isn't cored (on mine at least). In other words, it's a single layer of fiberglass. If that's the case on yours as well, I don't get the reason for the overdrilling and messing with epoxy bit. (If you do have a sandwich, then, yes, you'd replace the core with something incompressible).

I would also stay away from permanent adhesive. Why cause trouble for anyone (including yourself) who may want to exchange, upgrade or replace one of these fittings some time in the future? I would also leave off the lock washers, and simply use the "nylock" type nuts. As for the washers, the larger the better. For a small cleat, you might even see whether a SS fender washer is wide enough that you could drill two holes for the bolts through it and turn it into a "backing plate".

If you mount something on an otherwise unbroken deck, and if you want that to remain watertight, then perhaps some butyl tape for bedding might be advisable. (Or just some caulk that you let cure a bit before putting full pressure on it, so it's not all squished out). Some people are running such lines through the deck. When adding such a "through-deck" fitting that will have a permanent hole, I see no reason to seal the connection between fitting and deck in any way.

As for holding power, I think your bolts are going to be fine, and there's no need for an adhesive. This is for the furling line, correct? That's not going to be very highly loaded compared to sheets and halyards.
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Re: Fairleads, cams and roller furling...

Postby Thomasjbrothersjr » Sun May 12, 2013 8:52 pm

I think you are right about the deck and not messing with the epoxy. The epoxy would be to seal the hole through a cored deck. Drilling through the epoxy filled hole would then not allow water to get to he core if water got down through the fitting hole. Correct me if I am wrong, but this would be the best way to attach outboard motor plate to the transom? Drilling a hole through the transom would then leave the core exposed.

I also agree about the fender washers, stainless. I wanted to go with the nylon insert nuts but they were out, hence the lock washer. The permanency of these deck fittings is also a real good point, I hemmed and hawed while at the supply house as to which to get. I will be switching it up for the removable type of adhesive/sealer.

Thanks for the advice Green Lake
"It's not the towering sail, but the unseen wind that moves the ship"

1983 O'Day Daysailer II "KALEIGH B"
Thomasjbrothersjr
 
Posts: 77
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2012 11:00 pm
Location: Massachusetts

Re: Fairleads, cams and roller furling...

Postby GreenLake » Mon May 13, 2013 12:37 am

For the transom, you'd drill whatever holes you need, then dig out the core (plywood ?) around them. For balsa wood people use a bent nail in a drill to remove core adjacent to a hole, don't know whether that would work for plywood. You then fill the space with thickened epoxy, finally drilling a hole to size. You end up with a "cylinder" of epoxy. That cylinder needs to not only seal the core against water from the hole, but also needs to have compression strength to hold whatever loads you are putting on it by tightening the bolt. So, you are looking at giving that cylinder a wall thickness of perhaps not less than 1/4".

Lock washers might be OK, but I've learned that they are designed to work in places where there's no "give", like in bolting two metal plates together. Then they can be tightened to spec and will work as intended. Threadlocker is another alternative that might work. Or use both.
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