Welcome Aboard!

These pages will cover the restoration and upgrades I have done to a 1979 Choate 40.
I acquired the vessel in poor condition at a reasonable price and so far have put twice that amount into her.
From the evidence I have found, she had been de-masted, run aground several times, slightly flooded, run hard and put away wet.
Fortunately, she had new standing rig with a used mast from a Catalina 40 and a recent head job on the motor.
The rest of the info I'll segregate into pages for detailed information.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

The Arch

I think an arch is in the future of most of the modern sailboats. There are so many advantages to having an arch.

In my case it will eventually support antennas, radar, solar panels, the mainsheet traveller, safety gear, stern light, a small jib boom, an outboard motor, fishing rod holder and hand hold for several occasions. And for others it may work for a davit, as well.

I ordered the arch as I was starting the hull/deck joint. I needed it before I could complete the caprail because the out-coves needed to be built for it to set on. I'm not going to give credit to the guy who built it because he didn't want to build it the way I wanted it, a reverse arch,  and some of the work wasn't done as I asked and wasn't found until it was already mounted.

A lot of measurements were taken for mounting and positioning.

After it was built and set up on the boat it ended up being 6" farther back then where planned, which turned out better as far as I was concerned.

I had to straddle the backstay and cut a section out of the center antenna mount.

Here it's up on caprail remnants to get the proper position. The X's are where it was originally supposed to go.

Moving it back caused a mismatch between the pads and deck, which I'll deal with later.

Getting it in position to drill holes.

Made some shims to go under pads for the arch bases to sit flat.

Checking the shims and transferring the holes.

Alignment marks...................


The shims epoxied on and faired in with filler and FG/epoxied over.


Painted and mounted...........


The builder supplied a jib for hanging over the stbd side for lifting an OB or whatever. I plan to build a roller car that will ride along the tube.

I made a hinge for it so it could be swung forward or back but the builder put the support in the wrong place on the arch.  So I'll have to build an adaptor to support the jib end on it's center line.



Then came the mounting of the traveller track. Drilling SS by hand, it would have been impossible to get the holes lined up. As it was it took all day even with the mag drill. It was nice to have the boom to hold the mag drill while moving it around and to get it on/off the boat.

Since the traveller is head high I built a special bracket to go on the traveller so I could pull straight down rather then having to lift up over my head. And now with the traveller overhead I don't have the mainsheet interfering with the tiller, if it's down, like when using the windvane.


I will eventually install a longer track, the mainsheet line rubs the corner of the bimini when running before the wind. 

And last but not least the 2 mile stern light........................ 





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1 comment:

  1. builderDecember 30, 2011 at 7:32 AM

    While I acknowledge the functional advantages of an arch, I hate them because they often clash with the lines of the boat.

    But not in your case. That arch almost complements the boat. It looks like it was 'designed' with the boat! lol.

    Looks great.

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