[Sentoa] Backing Plates in Pilot House Roof

[mcc272j at aol.com]

Bob --

Sorry to see that you are having an issue.? Bob Lacouture (Mariner Systems) installed those ratchet mounts.? He does most of the Nordic Tugs coming out of Wilde so I suspect that he does them the same way each time.? His number is 203 847-4147.? You might give him a call and ask what he did.

Unless you hear something different from Bob, here is what I would do, especially since you know that the bolt hole does not come all the way through.? Remove the?antenna from the ratchet.? Remove the 4 bolts holding the ratchet to the roof.? Fill the 4 holes with unthickened West System epoxy to allow the plywood which is what I am pretty sure is in there to wet out and absorb the epoxy before it hardens.? Then, once it hardens, drill it out slightly bigger?and just a hair deeper than the fasteners.? Fill each hole paritally with West Epoxy thickened with 404 High Density filler.? Set?the mount over the holes and push the?bolts down into the epoxy filled holes.? When it sets up, it won't go?anywhere.??Gougeon Brothers (West Epoxy) calls this "hardware bonding" and uses it all the time.? I have installed cleats that way on another boat.? It probably makes sense to tape around the ratchet before you start in?with the?epoxy so you don't have any squeeze out and get on the roof.

I would be very surprised if there were aluminum plates embedded.? I think that plywood is much more likely.? When the boats come in, there is simply gel coat across the entire pad where the antennas?go and those pads look just like the rest of the roof.

Holler if what I have written does not make sense.

Jim


(Jim & Mim McCrea, mcc272 at aol.com, 2004 C-Dory 22 Cruiser "C-Star")

?

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Geary <gearys at tvcconnect.net>
To: sentoa at lists.samurai.com
Sent: Sun, Jun 14, 2009 7:45 pm
Subject: [Sentoa] Backing Plates in Pilot House Roof



The pilot house roof of our NT 37 has four raised areas in each of its corners.? Presumably these are intended to mount antenna and other such items.

?

Does anyone know if there are any backing plates installed in the layup of the roof?? If so, what might the plates be?

?

We have two VHF antenna mounted on each of the after corners.? One of them seems to be adrift with three of the four machine screws (1/4 x 20)? stripped.? We removed the ceiling panels in hope of replacing the nuts, but they do not penetrate thru to the inside.? So... no Nuts!

?

If there is a backing plate, I can hopefully drill it out and retap. Since the holes do not go thru, it would be too easy to use a bolt that is too long and have it bottom out.? I suspect that may be what happened.

?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

?

Bob Geary

North Star 37-134



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