Pearson Boats - Common Systems > Interior Structures

P323 Dinette Table Clamping Bracket

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m_boone:
Hi Everyone,

The dinette table on Blue Sky will not stay in place after fully clamping the bracket (trying to think the proper name of this bracket - clamping bracket?) so I took the table, pole and mounting hardware home to take a look at it. The first thing I noticed was that the bracket's aluminum threads were history. I'm always surprised when I see threads cut into aluminum, especially for something that holds as much weight and gets worked as much as the dinette table. I think that they should have used stainless or brass threaded inserts. I'm sure that the threaded aluminum bracket worked fine for many years in most cases but after 40 years, I don't think threaded aluminum parts hold up well. However, everything else looks good after 40 years!


Notice the stripped threads and the damage around the hole from people trying to clamp the table down hard.

After looking at the mounting bracket closer, I noticed a plastic sleeve within the aluminum clamping bracket. The plastic sleeve becomes worn after years of table movement and clamping and because of this, Blue Sky's table will not hold fast when fully clamped. It's a natural reaction to tighten the table bolt even tighter when the table wont stay put but that's how the aluminum threads get stripped.



My first idea was to turn the plastic sleeve around where the top would, theoretically, be less worn than the bottom. However, I couldn't pull the plastic sleeve all of the way out from the bottom and I didn't want to remove the clamping bracket from the table in order to remove the plastic sleeve from the top. So, I used what I think is called gaffer's tape (cloth material tape) around the bottom of the outside of the plastic sleeve. I overlapped the tape in some places. Once back in the clamping bracket, the tape decreased the inside diameter of the plastic sleeve. That seemed to work.

The next hurdle was how to clamp the bracket to the pole. Blue Sky did not have the table bolt when I bought her so I had to think of something else as others have mentioned in this forum. My solution was to use a quick-release bicycle seat clamp and it works perfectly as far as I'm concerned.





The preliminary test results look good.

m_boone:
I've just re-read SailRxSin's "table post" thread and according to Selene's post, P323's may have had different mounting systems. His uses a quick-release pin.

rnebergall:
To confirm, Zufrieden (hull 344) has a quick-release pin as well. 

Happily, looks like you've hit upon a good solution.

selene:
Selene has both quick release pin and clamp.
I really like your bike clamp idea!
When I am next on Selene I'll take a pic. the quick release pin works well, taking most of the weight and holding the table in position. The clamp is purely to stop the residual movement. With no pin, I can easily see how the clamp threads would get stripped.
Nice job....

m_boone:

--- Quote from: rnebergall on September 09, 2020, 07:15:31 PM ---To confirm, Zufrieden (hull 344) has a quick-release pin as well. 

Happily, looks like you've hit upon a good solution.

--- End quote ---

Thanks rnebergall. Blue Sky's hull number is 104 so quite a bit earlier than Zufrieden.

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