I second Larry's suggestion for plugging with epoxy. The epoxy plug not only helps eliminate the water intrusion into the wood core but equally important if you use this approach when attaching new hardware, you eliminate compressing the deck/coach roof. Check out the March/April issue of Good Old Boat for a good article on this subject. Joe M17 Seagray #651 ----- Original Message ----- From: Larry E Yake To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 11:15 PM Subject: Re: M_Boats: mainsheet track Tom, When I relocated the mainsheet track, I put it about 18" back from the companionway. That location has worked out real well. If you do move your mainsheet track very far, you'll need to also move the boom bail, but that's easy enough to do. If your worried about drilling extra holes in your boom, just take a look at Gary O's boom. :-) I would also recommend doing the epoxy plug thing when you put new holes in the cockpit sole. That will keep moisture from getting into the wood core, and also prevent the compression problem. Larry Y On Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:37:42 -0800 Tom Jenkins <tjenk@gte.net> writes:
Hi Randy, Thanks for the tips and cautions. I did not know the track was through-bolted, since I have never stuck my head up under the cockpit. I'm surprised the glass separated from the plywood by squeezing too tightly on the bolts; you must have cranked them down
hard enough to compress the wood. I will have to get the boat on the water to experiment with the track location, but the water is still quite hard in our neck of the woods. It would be nice to be able to sneak between the sheet and
the tiller to tack without raising the latter (I now have less than
an inch clearance), so perhaps I will get two upgrades in one. Tom Jenkins M17 #626
On Feb 24, 2010, at 4:09 PM, R.K.Graves wrote:
Hi Tom,
I can help with some information having done the same on our 1988 model. The cockpit floor is comprised of a fiberglass-plywood-fiberglass sandwich. The top layer of fiberglass is as you can see in the cockpit floor with non-skid, and roughly 3/16 thick. If you were to crawl under your cockpit and look up at the bottom of the floor you would also see fiberglass but this is mat and resin. Between the two is plywood. My guess is the total thickness of the sandwich is just less than 1".
Tightening the new track caused the top layer of non-skid fiberglass to separate from the plywood core on our boat (I heard of the same thing on one other boat). Jerry recommended a vacuum technique to re-bond the two. Jerry made it sound easy but I concluded it was a bit over my head. The separated area formed a bubble in the forward floor of the cockpit. I drilled a small hole through the top layer and by tilting the boat a bit was able to manage a sufficient quantity of penetrating epoxy into the detached area. I then placed several cinder blocks on top the floor while it cured. Turned out OK! Lesson learned is to not over tighten the screws holding the track. They are machine thread and fender washer and locknut'd on the bottom side. Snub with some bedding compound and you are good-to-go!
Yes, the holes between the two tracks don't line up. Larry took the opportunity when mounting his new track to move the track forward about 12 inches or so. This still allowed for a person to sit forward of the track but gave the helmsman more room to move between the mainsheet and tiller. Because of the change in mechanical advantage by moving the mainsheet forward he also upgraded to a 4-to-1 purchase. The windward sheeting setup is a nice package and has worked great.
Randy Graves M17 #410
On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 2:55 PM, Tom Jenkins <tjenk@gte.net> wrote:
I am plotting installation of a Harken windward sheeting car setup on my 2004 M17, in place of the factory T track and slide. Anybody know what the present track is screwed into, so I will know what to expect when
I install the 7/8" CB track? Additionally, the new track is bolted on 3-15/16" centers (obviously 10 centimeters), but I measured my old track at 4" centers. Is the old track metric as well, and my measurement faulty? (My boat is many miles away at the moment, so I can't remeasure). Thanks in advance for any insights and assistance.
Tom Jenkins Scintilla _______________________________________________
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