Ouch !
A "pandoras" bridle plate !
Joe - that was a great tale. Some insight of what riggers have to contend with. A good laugh, even though it is close to home. Our vessel has no known history whatsoever, other than neglect !
Ummmmh - I can see that if we knew this 12mths ago I could have welded extra chainplates in with no real drama. The chainplates are heavy SS bar that is welded through the deck plating and extends down to the first chine bar inside. My wife last week just finished putting in all the teak linings (a big job, all plugged screws). The 3mth boat project that has taken 3 years has been a challenge for the both of us and now that we have some light at the end of the tunnel, I won't throw a spanner in, just yet (the political reality).
What to do - I guess that we should complete our re-rigging, as is. I have already cut the wire for the caps and the ends are sitting on ready for swaging today. I have not cut the 1/4" upper shrouds as yet. In the end we will have to waste those shouds if we put new chainplates in, but thats Ok in the long run if we get a better rig out of it all. After all we do want something we can depend on. I want to be able to snooze happily in rough weather (off watch) without my mind churning every known weakness in the boat.
The chainplate pin on the bottom of the link is 5/8", the pins in the turnbuckle toggles are 1/2".
After Joe's account I can visualise the scenario of the chainplates set up for a single spreader spar then a dual spreader being mounted. I think the rig is original, it is an old "sparcraft" mast.
I doubt there is much we can do short term other than replace all the pins and dye penetrene test the chainplate as we re-rigg. The chainplate is 9mm thick SS with 16.7mm of surface remaining between the pin hole and the edge of the chainplate.