Carbon Fiber Chainplates

[boatsmith]

It might seem silly to put carbon fiber chainplates on a Wharram catamaran. They were relatively simple and inexpensive to make and won't suddenly break or crack as SS sometimes will. The decks certainly won't leak and the bolts won't break their bond and leak. They also allowed us to put the chainplates on the inside face of the daggerboard trunk which is an area that is well reinforced. We had some thimbles turned from a 316 stainless bar and sawed them in halve. These provide a form for the carbon fibers and a large round surface underneath to facilitate reeving the deadeye lanyards. Our standing rigging is Dynex Dux from Colligo Marine and both upper and lower shrouds will terminateat these chainplates. The SS "thimble" allows the carbon fibers to wrap around the load and prevent the carbon from being put into sheer which is not its' best strength. We used 12" wide unidirectional tows and slow epoxy. We wet the material out, squeezed out all the resin we could and passed them through holes in the deck. Then we splayed out the carbon tows, added a layer of 0-90 carbon fabric and an upper flange. Then we vacuum bagged the works down. Nice!!

[boatsmith]

A few more photos.

[Ian Bamsey]

How did you get such a great finish on those complex areas. I see your masking tapes. Is that an anti-slip areas around the chain plates  Do tell, how do you get that finish, and what's your preferred anti-slip.

P.S. Those plates are unlikely to completely fail. Great job.