Log of Alberg 30 #262 on 05 February 2017

During the party, at TC Williams house, after the racing seminar, was speaking with TC and Charles Pleisse about the backing plates and mentioned that drilling stainless was a bit of a bear. TC offered the use of his Craftsman drill press. Loaded it into the car for use at Smith's.

• Carried the drill press onto Constance, setting it up in the cockpit. Drill press has a 1/3 hp motor and five sheaves on the motor and the drill spindle. Use the slowest setting which is listed as 540rpm.
• The spacing and location of the holes in each chainplate is different. Each must be drilled individually.
• Drilled the port and starboard forward lower backing plates, using the chainplates as templates. With the chainplate in place, placed the backing plate against the aft side of the hanging knee, inserted a pencil through the bolthole to mark the vertical location of the upper hole that needed to be drilled on the backing plate. Used a drill set to mark the location at the indicated vertical position and centered side to side on the backing plate. Drilled the hole using a 3/64" bit, a 3/16" bit and finally the required 5/16" bit with 30SAE oil as lubricant. Amazing what a difference the drill press makes, chips come easily, drill does not attempt to dive into the material. Once the first hole was drilled, inserted a bolt into the thick wood block beneath the backing plate, and used the 5/16" bit to mark the exact location of the lower hole. Pivoted the chainplate out of the way and worked the sequence of bits again. Repeat for the third hole.
• The starboard side backing plate would not fit due to excess resin on the shelf beside the bottom of the knee. The Ridgid multitool sander took care of that with some patience.
• Cleaned up the starboard forward lower chainplate a bit with ScotchBrite.
• Installed, loosely, the starboard side backing plate and reconnected the shroud, loosely.
• Drilled the port side backing plate using the same procedure.
• The port side backing plate needs to be cut down some 3/8" due to an accumulation of resin where the knee meets the underside of the deck. Dont want to remove this resin as it may be contributing to the strength of the constuction.
• Disconnected the aft lower shrouds.
• Unbolted and removed the aft lower chainplates. The starboard chainplate is bent forward at the deck, about 9/32" over a span of 2". The port aft lower chainplate is straight be comparison. Problem ?
• Marked the location of the upper hole in each of the two backing plates.
• Feeling tired and the time being 16:30, decided to call it a day, pack up, and head home in order to be in time for Mike Hourwitz's SuperBowl party at 18:10.