Michael,

The construction of the cabin top is a piece of 3/4" (?) plywood, sandwiched between the outer skin and the inner liner, with a very thick bed of thickened epoxy on either side.

The chainplate is a six inch tang which has been bent to an acute angle and screwed to the underside of the plywood with 2 small #8 wood screws.

I hope this makes sense...I don't have Roger's technical writing skills.

After cutting a slot/hole into the cabin ceiling liner and digging out the old thickened epoxy to get to the two attaching screws; because of the acute angle of the bend in the chainplate tang and it's closeness to the side wall cabin liner, you will have to also cut the side wall liner down the wall a couple inches to fish the entire chainplate down and out. I ended up doing this and it created a terrible mess. I did however cut bigger holes at in the roof liner to replace sections of the plywood that had deteriorated because of leaks. Trying to do fiberglass and epoxy work overhead is something you only try once, trust me. I gave up.

Stan advised another Rhodes 22 owner whose chainplate got ripped completely out to do it differently. Stan advised to cut access holes in the cabin sidewall liner, reinforce the sidewall and mount the chainplates on the outside. While not  aesthetically pleasing, I would suggest doing it that way and leave the old chainplate in place.

Attached is the outside view of my installation. I will also post pics of the way this other Rhodie did it at Stan's advice if I still have them.

Todd T


20240730_160750.heic

On Tue, Jul 30, 2024, 11:45 AM Michael McKay <mm.bizlist1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Rhodies,
>
> I damaged one of my forward lower chainplates and need to replace it.
>
> It  is evidently attached to something between the inner and outer
> fiberglass skins, so my plan would be to cut an access hole from the
> inside.
>
> Can you provide any guidance about how best to approach this project?
>
> Thank you!
>
> Mike McKay
> S/V Liber 2006/2108
> Allatoona Lake, GA
>
>
>
>
> Michael McKay
> (630) 209-2054 (m)
>
> Sent from my iPhone