Removing stainless bolts from vang/mast plate. advice, pleas

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Michel
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Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2008 5:48 am
Location: Zaanstad, the Netherlands, EU

Re: Removing stainless bolts from vang/mast plate. advice, pleas

Post by Michel »

A comment about the external stainless ring: I've heard of installations where the ring slid upwards over the mast. In one case I know someone used two rigging screws to attach the vang-ring to the deck collar to keep it from sliding up. I would say with the internal aluminum plate, you could just as well tap new oversized thread into the mast and the alu plate and use screws. You have ten more years before corrosion gets a problem. If you use an anti-seize agent, perhaps 15 years.
Last edited by Michel on Mon Dec 22, 2008 12:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Michel Capel, Freedom 44 #4 1981 'Alabama Queen', NED8188, cat ketch with wishbones, home port Enkhuizen, the Netherlands, 52*42.238'N 005*18.154'E.

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GeoffSchultz
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Re: Removing stainless bolts from vang/mast plate. advice, pleas

Post by GeoffSchultz »

I was going to reply to this post before, but I went off looking for photos of the boom vang collar (which I didn't find) and got sidetracked along the way. Anyhow, the 40/40 uses a collar, but I've had 2 problems with it.

First off, the collar consists of 2 semi-circular pieces of 1/8" stainless that's about 6-8" wide. It end are bent at 90 degrees to form tabs to bolt the halves together. There's a triangular piece of 1/4" stainless on a hinge that sticks out and the boom vang slides into it. Here's a crappy picture of the attachment point for the vang.
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Unfortunately the fabric mast collar is covering up most of what I wanted to show. Anyhow, the first problem was that the 1/8" stainless wasn't up to the job and actually tore due to a lot of heavy down-wind sailing that I did. To solve this I had the tear welded and another 1/8" welded over the top of the other plate. This sufficiently distributed the loads away from the hinge tabs so that it has never torn again, and I've been in a lot more heavy down-wind situations since then (ever sailed the coast of Colombia? WOW!)

The next problem was something that Michel mentioned...the collar sliding up. This happened to me, and my first attempt at solving it used a stainless chain looped over the vang collar and attached to the mast ring. This worked OK, but wasn't very pretty. I then made a plate out of 1/4" stainless which attached to the bottom of the vang hinge tabs, but as you can see from the photo below, it wasn't up to the task.
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I then re-made it using 1/2" stock and this baby works great. It keeps the vang collar in place hasn't distorted.
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-- Geoff
BlueJacket
1997 Freedom 40/40
http://www.GeoffSchultz.org

dwight
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Re: Removing stainless bolts from vang/mast plate. advice, pleas

Post by dwight »

Geoff,

Attached are photos of a complete, uninstalled ring. I plan to install it on my F36 after I figure out how to modify an F40 Quick Vang to go with it. I am going to incorporate your ring idea to keep the collar from sliding up when I am able to install it. First I need to modify a used F40 Quick Vang that I have.
Attachments
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Dwight Escalera
Accredited Marine Surveyor, SAMS #1024
former engineer at Freedom Yachts
former owner F36-71
Wakefield, RI

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Castaway
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Location: Lerwick, Shetland Isles

Re: Removing stainless bolts from vang/mast plate. advice, pleas

Post by Castaway »

There is a Loctite product available in Europe called "Schnell-Röstler", catalogue nr 39160, also numbered 8040 on the can, which is said to freeze metal to -43º C. It is also a penetrating oil. Perhaps alternate use of this and some locally applied heat might loosen up the broken screws enough to remove them with a screw extractor? It has worked for me on aluminium/stainless, but I haven't tried it on Carbon Fibre.
Gerald Freshwater,
s/y 'Castaway', (UK F35 cat ketch, centreboard, 1987)
Lerwick Boating Club
Shetland Isles, Scotland

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hxschiller
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Location: Mull 28 - "Impulse" on NW Creek in New Bern, NC

Re: Removing stainless bolts from vang/mast plate. advice, pleas

Post by hxschiller »

The stuff described by "Castaway" is available in the USA as: "Loctite Freeze and Release" Item # 996456 in 400 Mililiter cans. Given the description, this stuff should be very helpful in breaking things loose using "Differential Contraction", for instnce the stainless machine screw that has welded itself to an aluminum part. Herm

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