I took my H18 to PCB, FL for a week of sailing fun and when I pulled sails from the sail bag, the clew plates on both the jib and main fell off! The rivets had corroded away between the plates. Now what???
With some coaxing, I managed to use needle nose pliers to grab and twist the stub of each rivet to free it from the plate and then push it through. Once I had all of the rivets out of both plates, I ran to Lowes, plates in hand, and bought #6-32 x 3/8" Stainless Pan-Head Screws (Item 409487) and #6 Stainless Nylon Insert Lock Nuts (Item 409469). The #6's passed right through the rivet hole and the Nylon nuts snugged nicely, allowing me to avoid flats and lock washers. #8's would have required drilling the rivet hole to a slightly larger size, but the #6's were perfect. 3/8" long is the perfect length too, as there was just enough screw to engage the nylon. I plan to just leave it this way... unless there is a reason to go back with rivets?
I share this to encourage you to buy and keep the above screws and lock nuts in your trailer box. I had no idea the clew plates could fall off like that and my blind hole rivets would have looked ugly sticking out of one side of the clew plate. The stainless screws and lock nuts look pretty good and held tight.
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Tim Young
Hobie 18' + other stuff that floats and goes.
Kentucky
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