What is the deck strapping for?

[HughHarv]

Hello,
I'm a new Ericson 39 project boat owner with a design question. I removed many overhead panels while inspecting the boat and noticed that there are four flat bars of stainless steel strapping on each side of the boat under the deck. Two pass through the bulkheads forward of the galley and two pass through the cockpit bulkhead far outboard of the cockpit. They look like longitudinal bracing for the deck? It appears as though I've got a couple of missing straps (see attached images) and I want to find out how critical this is to structural integrity, any ideas?
Thanks.

 

[wurzner]

Hugh,

Seth was former Ericson employee so he is an excellent resource. I'm sure he will pick up on the thread, but ping him directly otherwise.

Once again, welcome to the list and good choice of boat...well worth putting the effort into it. You can also search by model type under the owners adn projects to see who else has a 39.

regards
shaun

 

[NateHanson]

Maybe backing plates for the sheet lead tracks?

 

[Morgan Stinemetz]

Disagree with the "backing plates for sheet track leads." Sheet tracks wouldn't go across the coach roof. It seems as if they serve no useful purpose.
Morgan Stinemetz

 

[Seth]

Looks like backing plates to me

This is what we used at the factory for sail track backing plates in many cases.

While it is true that most of the E-boats did not have track on this part of the cabin top-many 39's (and 37's and 46's) did. This would likely have been a track for sheeting a genoa staysail. Are there corresponding tracks on the deck above, or any sign that they once were there, but were removed, holes filled and repainted?

Back in the "day", many 39's that were set up for offshore racing used a double head rig (faily high cut Jib Top-aka Reacher) with a Genoa Staysail set underneath.

Since some of it seems to have been taken out, the PO may have got rid of the deck tracks if he planned on simply using a single headsail on a furler.
Often in these situations, the backing plates were hard to remove because they were bedded with 5200 or sometimes even glassed in. Thus, it was easier to simply leave the backing plates in rather than try and break them out if those tracks were removed.

So, my guess is that they are or were tracks on the cabin top, and these were the backng plates.

Signed,
A true E-:nerd:
S

 

[Martin King]

The strapping is backing plates for inboard sail tracks. THere is no
doghouse on a standard 39, she's flush decked and often ordered
with stuff like this for racing.

Martin

 

[Loren Beach]

Another (minor?) point about track on flush-deckers, expecially those set up for full crew racing, is that the sheet lead was/is sometimes a floating block that is controlled from several on-deck tracks running *both* ways (i.e. sideways as well as the conventional fore 'n' aft).
The backing plates on the underside would then be in that same allignment.
If you don't mind having a lot of lines to tweak, you can positively set the genny clew position in all three dimensions!
:nerd:
We used to have one of the rare IOR-designed J Boats racing around here with this set up. Swivel blocks and wire controls and multiple car leads, Oh My!
You would not want to traverse the side decks with bare feet...

"Whatever it takes to get that extra fraction of a degree of pointing."

Loren

 

[Seth]

Yeah, but

Not on the 39-this technique was not a consideration during the time the 39 was in production, and as Martin says-these tracks are not located anywhere convenient for any genoa lead or lead adjustment positions. They appear to be right where the staysail tracks would go.

In fact, the E39 color brochure in the specs section of the site shows these tracks on the deck..
S

 

[HughHarv]

Good Info

Thanks for the responses, I didn't see any signs of former track on deck so I didn't think of backing plates for genoa staysail. There is signs of there being a track on the center of the foredeck which could have been for the double headsail arrangement. I'm into easier sail handling so I don't anticipate ever using these again. Thanks again.

 

[Seth]

There you go!

The foredeck track was generally to locate the foreguy block (for the spinnaker pole) and also a sliding padeye on this track would serve as the tack point for a wire luff spinnaker or genoa staysail.

The mostly likely thing is that you are seeing the backing plates for staysail sheeting tracks that have long since been removed and the deck holes filled and repaired.

Enjoy!
S