Jimlaserboat
Member
Hi All. It's been a great sailing season in Centerport, NY this year. A friend and I sail 1984 models.
The other day we noticed two screws were missing from his gudgeon. I had a spare screw so i was able to get one back in, although on a slighlty askew path. The other screw's head broke off cleanly so we now we have a screw in the hole with no head. Before realizing what I was dealing with (metal fatigue), I went to try to tighten up the other screws and another head popped right off when i applied pressure. This was when I realized I had simple metal fatigue, and all the screws are likely comprimised.
So my question....how does one remove and old screw from a hole, and get a new one in? Or...would it be reasonable to attempt to slightly move the gudgeon and reposition it to a new home if possible? As you can see in the photo, I only have room to move the gudgeon up towards the deck.
Even with all this, the gudgeon still seems well anchored. I think the reason the screw that I was able to get in went askew is because the other half the screw that broke was still inside the hole, so when i put the new screw in, the old stump diverted it slightly, but I did get it to grab good wood.
Moving the gudgeon would be less preferable to trying to get screws back in the original holes, but if that's what's need then ok.
Thanks for any advice here.
JB
The other day we noticed two screws were missing from his gudgeon. I had a spare screw so i was able to get one back in, although on a slighlty askew path. The other screw's head broke off cleanly so we now we have a screw in the hole with no head. Before realizing what I was dealing with (metal fatigue), I went to try to tighten up the other screws and another head popped right off when i applied pressure. This was when I realized I had simple metal fatigue, and all the screws are likely comprimised.
So my question....how does one remove and old screw from a hole, and get a new one in? Or...would it be reasonable to attempt to slightly move the gudgeon and reposition it to a new home if possible? As you can see in the photo, I only have room to move the gudgeon up towards the deck.
Even with all this, the gudgeon still seems well anchored. I think the reason the screw that I was able to get in went askew is because the other half the screw that broke was still inside the hole, so when i put the new screw in, the old stump diverted it slightly, but I did get it to grab good wood.
Moving the gudgeon would be less preferable to trying to get screws back in the original holes, but if that's what's need then ok.
Thanks for any advice here.
JB