Forestay chain plate and keel hinge bolt washers

[rocketman28]

I am restoring a 1975 V21.
My V21 chain plate has three bolt holes where it attaches thru the hull but only uses 1 bolt to secure it to the hull. The lock nut is tight but the chain plate moves easily in the deck slot and is a source of water leakage Should there be 2 or 3 bolts? Also is there a way to caulk or prevent the water seepage.

Also the keel bolt was squeezed way too tight and deformed the rubber washer, Where do I get a new washer and same for the 3/8" lock bolt washers.

[Tomfoolery]

Drill out the two rivets and remove the oval cover plate. Clean out whatever mess is in there, and re-bed the chainplate and cover with butyl tape. Rivet it back into place.

The butyl tape will remain flexible over time and allow the chainplate to breath in the slot. You don’t have to remove the chainplate unless there is some other problem.

[rocketman28]

Thx, I will certainly use the butyl tape when removing and replacing the chain plate cover, but any thoughts about adding another bolt thru one of the extra two chain plate holes?

[Tomfoolery]

. . . any thoughts about adding another bolt thru one of the extra two chain plate holes?

Being that the boat is at least 40 years old, and the forestay chainplate is still there with no apparent damage, I’d just leave it. There isn’t much load on it anyway, since it uses 1/8” wire rope which has a breaking strength of around 1900 lb and therefore a desired preload (15% of breaking) of around 285 lb with some cyclic loading above and below that. It’s not much force on even a small bolt in shear.

[rocketman28]

Tom, thx for the explanation, makes sense. This boat was a one owner boat and probably not sailed very much. I rebuilt the 4 HP Johnson and the points, carb and spark plug were like new. It hasn't seen water for at least 22 years that I know of.

Any thoughts about how I can replace the pivot pin without dropping the keel and hinging off the locking bolt. One washer is badly deformed on one side.