Andrew, When I replaced the bunks on my 1974 M17, I also measured the distance between the bolt holes in the old boards with the boards still in place. Since the boat was out of the water, I used a couple of 4x4s bolted to the perforated toe rail to prop up the hull then undid the adjusting bolts and lowered the bunk brackets a few inches. I countersunk galvanized bolts in the bunks and used stainless steel staples to attach ribbed carpet stair runner material with a heavy rubber backing to the boards. I then sprung the boards down into a curve with an old boom vang tackle and attached the bolts. The last step was to remove the pull down tackle and raise the bunk supports back to the original position and tighten the adjustment bolts. This job may have been easier on Griselda since she is one of the rare fin/bulb keel models and the bunks are up at chest level so one does not have to crawl around under the trailer. While I had the hull propped up, I barrier coated and painted the bottom with anti fouling. I did one side, and gave it a few days drying time for each step then did the other side. I don't think the propping up caused any problems since the hull was still supported by the keel support and the bunk on the other side and the the timbers were only used to balance the hull. Earlier, I had jacked up the bunk supports to raise up the enire hull while I lowered the keel to replace the keel bolts and re-bed the keel to hull joint. While I had the boat raised, I primed and painted the bottom of the cast iron keel bulb. A small hydraulic "bottle jack' and a piece of 4x4 works great for raising the bunk supports Whitebeard M17 #14, Griselda
From: andreic@math.wisc.edu To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com Date: Mon, 5 Oct 2009 09:18:12 -0500 Subject: M_Boats: Bunks replacement
Dear all,
the bunks for the trailer for my Monty 17 need to be replaced (they are aged and cracked). I have two questions for the knowledgeable people on this list:
a) the existing bunks are curved, but the 2x6's I bought at my local lumberyard are (obviously) straight. The curved ones should be slightly longer than that the straight-line distance between the mounting holes on the trailer. Where should I drill the screw holes in the wood? Should I do it as if I were mounting the bunks straight, and then let the weight of the boat sag them to the correct shape (easier to mount, but I don't know if the wood is elastic enough to stretch to the required length). Or should I drill the holes as if the bunks were already curved (slightly farther apart), but then I am not sure how I will mount them without some weight to curve them down (the holes in the bunks will not align with the holes on the trailer). Any suggestions? The complicating factor is that my current bunks are in such bad shape that once I take them out, with the boat in the water, there is no way I can put them back in, so I must have a well-thought- out plan since I can not leave the boat in the water at the dock.
b) I read on the internet confusing opinions on whether I should attach the carpeting with only staples, or with glue and staples. Glue and staples is more work, and requires the whole thing to wait 48 hours. Would the carpeting start to bunch up if I didn't put in glue?
Thanks for any help,
Andrei.
P.S. I have posted photos from my Apostle Islands trip this July (solo in the M-17, 4 days), at
http://www.math.wisc.edu/~andreic/gogu/Photo%20Album/2009/Apostle%20Islands%...
A.
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