When we bought the Pearson 6 months ago I checked the chainplates visually. The Pearson has larger 4 bolt chainplates for the upper shrouds and 3 bolt chainplates for the lower shrouds. They looked good, no corrosion visable, they actually looked really good. We sail often and have never had a problem. Fast forward 6 months and we are crossing the Gulf from Carrabelle to Tarpon Springs Florida. We had a great weather window, less than 1 foot and winds 5 to 10 knots. We checked several sources and the weather window looked solid. We start off and it may have been a little more than 1 foot but nothing to get worried about. We are having an awesome sail, doing a solid 6 to 7 knots but the wind is a little to much on our nose, still a good sail. About 25 miles out we hit a dark line of thunderstorms and it is only 10 am. Lowered the main, brought in the genoa and motored through the thunderstorm. It was pretty nasty, white flashes that were so close you could hear the hiss before the boom. The seas kicked up a little and the wind stiffened after we got through the storm. We ended up going through three pretty large thunderstorms and by the time we got 50 miles off shore the seas had built to 8 foot and the wind was howling directly onto our nose. I told my wife that we could sail towards Cedar Key and perhaps the seas would die down a but when we got out of the middle of the Gulf. So I reefed the main and only let out half of the genoa. We were making 6.5 knots and the boat was handling the 8 foot seas with no problem. The swells were constant and close together. As we came over one swell, we go hit with a really solid gust. It pushed the rail into the water but it was not that big of a deal, we had been sailing with the rail close to or in the water most of the day. When we came down the other side of the swell the boat came out of being heeled over as much as it was. My wife said, Dave the baby stay! I looked over and saw that the aft lower shroud on the starboard side was swinging against the boom. My wife took the helm and pulled in the genoa as I went and lowered the main. We motored the boat back and anchored behind Dog Island for the night. The wind howled all night long. The thunderstorms really brought in some weather. It would have been a really rough night crossing to Tarpon Springs had we continued. My wife asked me what we wanted to do now? We had given up our slip in Carrabelle so we could move the boat over to St. Augustine for a change in scenery. I told her that Panama City sounds like a great place to keep our boat. So we motored over and decided to make the city marina our home now.
I pulled the broken chainplate that snapped right at the deck level. I also pulled one from the port side so I could have replacements made. It only cost me $25 for each chainplate to be water jetted using my good one as a template. While researching the best stainless to use, I read several articles about stainless. I read that when stainless is deprived of oxygen, as we do when we bed them and make the area water proof, the stainless will corrode from the inside out. I also read that they have a serviceable life of about 10 to 15 years. I am pretty sure these are the original stainless chainplates from 1982. Well the starboard aft lower shroud plate snapped right where it was bedded. When we remove all the plates we found the forward lower plate on the starboard side was pulling apart too. We were hit with the big gust on the starboard. All the port plates were solid.
Anyway, A word of caution if you have 20+ year old stainless steel chainplates. They could look great and be corroding from the inside out where they are bedded through the deck.
