Erm ... had a little accident at the weekend when one of the nuts flew off the jib tack fixing.  It's stripped the thread off the bolt so I can't just put a new nut on.

I have a  Turner Canterbury Tales with wooden deck and it looks like the the bolt disappears into the wood. 

Has anyone ever had to fix this before or know how I replace the bolt?

Any advice would be gratefully received!!!

Thanks
Mark

This is extremely difficult to fix interms of the contortionism required!

If you look underneath the fitting there should be some filler (On Armed Forces is was mostly brown, some white giving away the bolt's position) which needs to be carefully drilled out exposing the heads of the bolts.

Doing this will probably involve you climbing deep intoi the bowels of the tank top, which is not very thick so take extreme care with your weight!

Thanks Chris, I thought this may be the case, but hoped it might not be!

Can you give me an idea of roughtl how much filler you had - how deep was it and should I assume it's a normal bolt so looking at the diameter of the thread work out roughly the diameter of the head????
Cheers
Mark

I didn't have to replace it, it was just more obvious on my boat!

I would have thought about a quarter to half an inch at the most.

Just a thought.  If the thread is stripped, can you find a friend with a tap/die set to cut a new thread in the bolt while it is still in postion?

But won't that mean that the core of the bolt becomes thinner (and therefore weaker) and will a normal die be able to cut all the way to the base of where the bolt sticks out, bearing in mind is't only as high as a nut anyway?

what do you think?

Mark

You must replace the bolt.  Fannying with inferior solutions could cost you the mast.  I'm pretty sure the bolt head is bogged in epoxy as the load on the screw head is so large it would just pull through the wood.  I think there will be a softer filler over the top.  Kevin Driver worked for JT didn't he?  You could ask him. 01297 23434 for Wrecked'em

Hi - I seriously doubt that you would be able to cut a new thread into a bolt with a hand die to have sufficient depth to secure a new nut given the exposed length available. I also think that you would find that a SS bolt would be too hard for you to cut a new thread onto successfully using a hand die in an awkward position.

Mark as your new crew...please replace the bolt rather than trying to cut a new thread! I don't want to wear the mast whilst storming through the fleet at an Open this year :)

It dependes on how the bolt is fixed at the head.  If it is encased in epoxy then removing the epoxy will be essential.  If it is recessed into the wood then it might be possible to unscrew it from the top by gripping it with vice grips after removing any filler and epoxy.  I would be reluctant to try to knock it out with a hammer as it might take some of the wood with it if there is any glue around it thus weakening the area.

Mark
I agree with Steve, replace the bolt.  On Carerra there was a plate under the filler spreading the load of the bolt heads.  Dig out the filler and clean the slot in the bolt head and try to break the seal of the epoxy with a screwdriver. This requires either getting up front under the deck or using a small mirror placed on the bow tank.  On Carerra, we managed to do this and then a sharp tap with a hammer on the top sides and it then unscrewed.
Best of luck.

Thank you all for your advice, and don't worry I'm definitely replacing the bolt!  Knowing there's a plate in there somewhere is really helpful too! Fingers crossed, it could be easier than I'm imagining!

Kevin Driver may have worked for JT but was very possibly still at Rowsells or off by himself at the time this one was built.  Your other boatbuilder source is Linton Jenkins (T/A Full Force boats) who was definitely at Turner's yard when the FS boats were completed.  I have exactly the same arrangement as Chris at the front end of Heaven Sent.  I doubt there's much in there apart from wood and a washer to hold it all together but your only option here is to chisel out the filler over the top and knock the bolt out and replace it

Andrew

Definitely quite a challenging task!  I eventually managed to get the old ones out and am just getting ready to put the new ones in.  Before I do, I wondered if everyone has the nuts at the top or if anyone has tried putting the bolts in the other way round?  I heard that the nut pulling the thread off is not uncommon and I guess that if you are epoxying the whole thing in anyway, then it might be better the other way round.  Has anyone tried it or any pearls of wisdom on this one?

If you have the nuts on the outside and they strip off at least you have the bolts to tap down through again.  If the bolts pull out getting the nuts out of the epoxy mifght be fun.

Unless you have a tube spanner you'd need to butcher the timber a bit I suspect, so probably best to stick to the tried and tested.
I dont know if it's been mentioned but you need to use over long bolts when you refix the tack fitting back in place so they purtrude 20'/30 mm above the deck which means you can grip them to tighten the nut down & then 'worry' them off. which saves the hacksaw treatment. Regards Barry.

Is there any reason why you can't use 2 nuts per bolt(the top one also acting as a lock nut) which would give a longer effective length of nut on the bolt and possibly less chance of stripping in the future. I realise that this will leead to the bolt being longer through the fitting but would this be a problem?  If you were worried about the nuts loosening a little bit of Loctite on the threads should do the trick.

If the nuts are pulling the thread off then I figured that havign them the other way round would mean that as well as the nut holding the strain, you'd also have the epoxy holding the strain - so less chance of the nut pulling off.....

Does everyone have the nut at the top or does anyone have anything different?  There may be method behind this madness but if nobody else is using another route, maybe there's a reason!!!