I am now working on an Islander 36. The port and starboard cap shroud and Intermediate chainplates have been replaced with new chainplates that I fabricated out of 316L stainless steel. 316L is the ideal form of stainless steel for chainplates. The "L" stands for "low carbon" which gives the metal more resistance to crevice corrosion.
The cap shrouds and intermediate shrouds connect to the same chainplate, and since the port chainplate had fractured and come through the deck, it wasn't safe to climb the mast until these new chainplates were installed and connected to the old rigging.
Once everything is setup and stable, we can go ahead and measure the rigging with the mast in its current position. The measurements are then taken to calculate how much dyneema we need to complete the re-rig.
When you order your line, be sure to add in the amount of line that will be consumed by splicing. In our case, we are using 7mm New England Ropes STS-HSR for the backstay, and 6mm New England Ropes STS-HSR for the shrouds. The headstay will be replaced with 316 Stainless Steel 1x19 wire so that the owner can retain his roller furling headsail.
The amount buried in a splice is 72 times the diameter of the rope. For 7mm line, that's 504mm or 20.1 inches per splice. This means that each stay needs an additional 20 inches on each end, ordering a few extra inches is advisable as it is always easier to cut off a few extra inches than to fix coming up a few inches short!
The deadeyes will consume 4 feet of rope each, and each stay needs one to connect it to the chainplate. There are 2 cap shrouds, 2 intermediate shrouds, 4 lower shrouds, and 1 backstay to replace with synthetics.
Once the total amount of line is known, an order can be placed and fabrication can begin once it arrives!
