Catalina 350 International Association

Howdy (from my Texas A&M days)

I joined the Coast Guard Auxiliary and am studying for crewman status. I saw some interesting dimensions regarding cleat backing plates. They recommend that the thickness of a metal (not aluminum) plate should be the same as the largest bolt diameter. If hardwood or exterior grade plywood is used, it should be twice as thick as the bolt. In addition, the flat washers' diameter should be three times the bolt diameter.

dave (Nybor)

When buying my boat, the surveyor found that there were no lock nuts on the chainplate bolts. There was a back up nut on each bolt, used to help “jam lock“ the first bolt. One of those was not even touching the first bolt. Since the bolts are so long and I did not want to run a lock nut all the way up. I used enough nuts to fill most of the length then put one lock nut on the bottom.

I can not figure out what size bolt the aft stays use. I can’t visually see what is going on with the bolt due to its location. The bolt may be buggered up.

Dana Vihlen
Sea Breeze #78 2003