MacGregorSailors.com

Once at the annual Pacific Boat show in Oakland CA, a MacGregor dealer recommended removing the chain plate cover plates by drilling out the pop rivets, cleaning and rebedding the area with an auto adhesive used for reattaching rear view mirrors to the glass windshield of car. Available at Auto Stores. Seems this adhesive flows better than other sealants to get into all the right places. Reattach the cover plate with new pop revets before adhesive dries.

POP RIVETS? I dont have pop rivets, Where are the rivets? The leak on mine was from the top plate for sure but mine was bolted and not sealed very well. Not sure why a auto adhesive would be recomended. In that area there is some stress and anything that you would use to seal it that would harden would most likely crack and leak some more. The factory uses 5200, very little in my case so I used the same to seal mine. I think any flexable water proof sealant would work. But 5200 is bullet proof and a mess to work with. I might be missing something here but I dont have rivets on anything on my boat except on the mast and boom from the factory.

The 26X has a loose cover plate that slides down over the chainplate and is then rivited to the deck.

The 26M has its cover plate integral with the chainplate. The good news is they're either sealed as a unit, or they leak as a unit. The bad ... affixing the chainplate to the hull requires more precise placement before drilling holes through the hull sides.

aya16 wrote: 5200 is bullet proof and a mess to work with.

If anyone has some resealing with 5200, it always helps to have a little Methyl ethyl ketone around, and some minwax wax. wax the parts you want to protect, and wipe the joints with your finger in a rag dipped with a little MEK. If you have any small cuts on your hand you can also quickly locate them with MEK.

I was installing the rail seats and used black 5200 to seal the backing plate, you cant see it inside the boat, anyway my storage mate (the guy who has the boat next to me) was working on his boat at the time and he uses an old wood ladder to get in and out of his boat. WELLLLLL I put the tube of black 5200 down on the step of his ladder for a second and latter saw all these black marks all over his boat. YEP he stepped in the stuff and I felt real bad, this was a first impession he had of me, (just met him)

good thing he was a forgiving kind of guy.

great story, you should make a movie from this!

My whole life is a movie..The problem is no one will pay to watch it.