Stanchion baseplate

"The gelcoat underneath one of our rail-mounted stanchions was badly cracked, and was through to the fibreglass. The other stanchion bases weren't bad – nothing through to the fibreglass, though lots of pressure cracks. We decided to remove all of the stanchions, and insert aluminum plates underneath them, to distribute the load more evenly. (See drawing.)

"We had to mount a spacer plate on the outside, to keep things even. We did add a little fibreglass filler where the gelcoat was crushed and broken through to the fibreglass, but we did not do anything under the other stanchion bases.

"We had these plates made by Kevin Sheldrick of Precise Metafab. Cost for 8 pairs of plates, which was enough for our '81 Mk III, was about $90.00. I haven't checked, but I assume that they could ship if people didn't want to go to the hassle of finding a local provider.

"The stanchions are much more solid now." – Hugh Morrin, Blue Zulu