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« on: August 13, 2015, 09:15:23 pm »
Hi Folks,
As you might have guessed, it was my post on Cruiser's Forum. I'm still at a bit of a loss to explain why the bolts sheared, though the arch and solar panels did ride out Hurricane Odile in La Paz (125+ winds locally). However, I agree that the 1/4-20 bolts are under-sized for the vertical mounting. Shelley at Atlantic Towers told me that they think the vertical mount is stronger. I ordered another arch, but this time in schedule 80 tubing, which is much stiffer than the schedule 40. I will up-size the bolts for the pads , as well as the pins that attached the arch to the pads. I will only carry the dinghy on the davits on short trips, and I am going to lower my solar panels by about 3-4". Hopefully, all of these big and little changes will keep things above the water where they belong. The hull of my boat remained intact during the entire event, which just reinforces my confidence in the CSY build quality.
Cheers, Bill