T&T: Backing Plates

[Rich Gano]

Note:  wooden boat spoken of here.

I mounted a big honking manual bronze winch on the centerline on the aft
deck (fantail to the more nautically inclined) last year.  (For you GB
owners, it's under the forward-canted taffrail so as not to be a tripping
hazard.)  I used a six foot long 3/4-inch thick red oak board placed
athwartships under the winch base, and I through-bolted the winch to it.  I
figured the sideways stresses could get pretty hefty and wanted a LOT of
decking and sub-decking backing this thing up as the forces try to tip it
over.  I used no bedding because I wanted no moisture collection under there
on the off chance some deck leak were to develop.  I doubt seriously any
leak will develop under the winch itself.  Even if it does leak, it will be
salty (thus, no wood rot) since I rinse the boat often with salt water.
Access underneath is easy from the laz.

Although I did not use it on the two extra cleats I added many years ago
alongside the anchor windlass, I think a good sized chunk of stainless or a
CPES-saturated chunk of high-density wood would be a good thing to use to
back up the every-day cleat.  Unless the access is difficult to impossible,
I would opt for something removable, which through-bolting allows.  Luckily,
I had access.  I drilled through the deck for the first of four holes and
then drilled one hole in the backer before going below to lightly cinch a
nut on the bolt.  The other bolt holes were then drilled in one pass through
deck and backing block before removing them all to apply bedding to the
cleat.  This is easier if you have a helper - I didn't, and a vice grip on
the nut wedged against something below was helpful in final tightening.

Fitting four bolts (my cleats are big enough to handle 3/4-inch line) to
threaded holes on a pattern on a section of stainless (or any other metal
for that matter) would not seem to be any easier than through bolting, at
least on an existing vessel.  Embedding a threaded stainless plate in a boat
under construction is a "'nother whole question."  If there was any option
in the construction, I'd still like the option of accessible through-bolts.
Maybe that's cuz I consider my whole boat nothing but a big Tinker Toy
anyway and can think of few if anything I haven't removed or messed with in
some way needing partial deconstruction since 1986.

Rich Gano
CALYPSO (GB-42-295)
Southport, FL