Traveler Rebedding Project
The traveler comes through the deck at the forward portion of  the aft master stateroom. The first stage of the project was to determine the needed bolts for the project as the two bolts which were pulled for inspection were bedded with a small amount of silicone sealant, showed evidence of crevice corrosion and general corrosion. Based upon a small sample the following parts were ordered McMaster Carr:      4" threaded 5/16" bolts - 4 bags of 5      5" threaded 5/16" bolts - 4 bags of 5      1.5" diameter 5/16" fender washers - 2 bags of 10      5/16" Nuts - 1 box of 100      5/16" Lockwashers - 1 bag of 50 West Marine      2.5" diameter extra thick fender washers - 1 box of 50      1 large tube white polysulfide Materials on hand      Latex Gloves      Mineral Spirits      Gorilla Tape      Acetone      Epoxy Resin      Slow Epoxy Hardener      Fast Epoxy Hardener      404 high density filler      Blue Masking Tape      Epoxy syringes      Plastic wrap - taped to underside of deck to avoid epoxy dripping on floors Special Tools Required      10" long pilot drill bit      18" long 5/16" drill bit ($14)      18" long 3/8" drill bit ($14)   The double layer of fender washers was based upon the washers from McMaster Carr were a bit thiner than I would like and the 3/8" fender washers from West Marine were very thick. I realized that the small extra gap around the 5/16" bolt in the 3/8" fender washer and then the 5/16" washer will result in an extra bit of sealant at the bottom of the bolt where it goes through the deck. The underside of the deck does have a small amount of curve which will result in one side of the bolt getting some additional loading compared to the other. I guess I could come through and make small wedges for each bolt which would lineup the bolt with the underside of the deck. However, much of the variation will  be taken up by the polysulfide which will be allowed to cure for a couple of weeks prior to final tensioning. In an ideal world a piece of G10 fiberglass could be cut with a holesaw and then bevel each piece to get a flat surface which is perpendicular to the bolt and thus the forces.  Luckily there is enough meat on each of the bolts that I can come back later and rework this if I feel the need. Another note is that the old Lewmar traveler is starting to show it's age, it is still functional so I will put it back down, however, there is some wear on the track and one of the bearings (port side, top bearing) has significant friction, however, that bearing deals with the fore/aft loads, not the verticle or horizontal loads and is thus not critical. I am working with some penetrating oil to improve the performance of the bearing. The starboard end fitting will still come off the end of the track allowing the car to be removed and serviced, the port side end is frozen onto the track. Even after a significant amount of pounding it has not moved a bit, thus any service of the traveler MUST come off the starboard side. This will make reinstallation more difficult because trying to keep the polysulfide out of the port track end will be a bit interesting. My current plan is to install the track without the starboard end, clean up the polysulfide, put the traveler car on the track, and then install the starboard track end. An interesting note is that the blocks added to the track end to provide a good lead angle to the traveler winches are anoying at best... By replacing the single blocks on the traveler with double blocks these loose blocks would no longer be necessary. There are two identical Lewmar blocks up on the bow, one on each side, used for the roller furler lines of which there is only a single line going through them. It might be possible to use the single blocks on the traveler there and the double blocks aft. I am trying to determine if there is any reason to have the double blocks forward, the only thing I could think of would be running spinnaker control lines or some such. Since I don't expect to be doing that anytime soon this might be a good compromise, I can always return them to the bow if and when I upgrade the traveler in the future. I plan to take the measurements necessary to know which replacement I would currently pick in the event that the traveler needs replacement so that in the event of a failure I have a good idea of which hardware to replace it with. My guess at this point would be either a Harken or Lewmar system would be a good match. Nov 27, 2009 - Pulled traveler up to examine status and start work, drilled out holes and filled with slightly thickened epoxy Nov 28, 2009 - Drilled holes for first fitting of traveler back onto deck. Determined that some of the original holes were not quite perpendicular to the deck which required re-drilling and refill Nov 29, 2009 - Re-drilled the holes for the traveler fitting and completed first fitting. The two outermost bolts are 5" long 3/8" 316 series stainless bolts, the next three in are 5" long 5/16" diameter 8-18 stainless, the remaining bolts are 4" long 5/16" diameter 8-18 stainless. 2" diameter extra thick fender washers fit nicely on the backside. However, three of the holes nicked the deck core again, the holes were refilled again after drilling to 1/2" from the backside. After re-drilling these holes again it was found that two of them had significant air gaps which left the core exposed (caused by using too thick of epoxy mixture) which required refilling again. This resulted in running out of time. Thus, the traveler did not get bedded down and the 16 other holes not filled with epoxy were plugged with bolts and a small amount of polysulfide. This project will  be continued next weekend. Dec 4, 2009 - Final drilling and got clean holes, started at 2pm and completed bedding down the traveler at about 6pm. Note, one large tube of polysulfide and two small tubes to complete the project. The port side top roller on car does not move easily. Either need a new roller or a new car at some point. Final cleanup of the sealant and then wait at least a week prior to final torqueing of bolts