Our boat was built in 1980 in Tampa. We think its standing rigging (all the wire cable that holds the mast up) was replaced once. For this trip, we decided to replace all the wire rigging. We are re-using all the existing Staylock and Norseman mechanical fittings, as opposed to "swagging" new fittings under very high pressure.

The wire rigging attached to the boat through "chain plates" that provide a solid attachment point to the hull of the vessel. Although these original stainless-steel plates are massive on a CSY, there is always the possibility of salt water getting in there and creating what is called "crevice corrosion, which will weaken the stainless steel to the point of failure.

Based on input from other CSY owners, we decided to go ahead and replace the internal chainplates on our CSY with newly machined external stainless steel plates. These have the advantage that can easily be seen, and minimize the risk of future crevice corrosion. A failure of a chainplate is likely to cause a dismasting, so we went ahead with a full replacement of the six chainplates, three on each side.

The old chainplates were completely removed (see picture below), and new holes were drilled for bolts with large washers and nuts inboard. The inside will be painted, and the wooden trip will be replaced on the inside lockers.

The cost of the work to completely replace the wooden toe rails that had to be cut to replace the toe rail was prohibitive. We plan to fill the holes until sometime when our time-table and cruising kitty permit redoing the wooden toe-rail.

We want to thank Ron Sheridan, a fellow owner of a CSY 44 Pilothouse "Memory Rose" for his help and advice in going ahead with this project. Without his help, this project would not have been possible in this short time.

Below are some pictures showing the original plates, per the CSY design, and the new plates being installed on our boat..

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