Tony, 

A word of caution and my opinion. 

The last two Atlantic Towers Arches I saw were installed wrong resulting in moisture penetration into the balsa core resulting in serious repair. I believe that one was aggravated by sailing in heavy seas with the dinghy on the arch. Be sure that the person penetrating the balsa core knows how to correctly do this. Also, I would check for moisture several months after the install.

Even if the deck is penetrated perfectly, I believe the deck and core are vulnerable when the legs are leveraged side to side by a dinghy loaded on the arch. You might consider adding something to the design to mitigate these side to side movements. 

I also believe there may be a number of decks already in need of repair because of the design and/or installation of this arch. 

Best,

CW Bill Rouse 
Amel Owners Yacht School
+1 832-380-4970 | brouse@...
720 Winnie, Galveston Island, Texas 77550 
www.AmelOwnersYachtSchool.com 
Yacht School Calendar: www.preparetocastoff.blogspot.com/p/calendar.html


   

On Mon, Jun 27, 2022, 21:55 Mark Erdos <mcerdos@...> wrote:

 

Tony,

I installed the Altantic Towers arch on Cream Puff and ran into the same problem. I could not get a wrench on the bolts for that forward leg on the port side. There is just not enough room. My solution was to cut an access hole in the top of the propane locker directly under the arch fitting using a rotozip and I installed 6" deck plate. This also allows future access.

 

 

With best regards,

 

Mark

 

Skipper

Sailing Vessel - Cream Puff - SM2K - #275

Currently cruising - French Polynesia

www.creampuff.us

On 6/27/2022 4:13 PM, Tony Elliott wrote:

Hi all,

I have recently purchased an Atlantic Towers - tower in a box for Grand Cru.

The install looks fairly simple except for one area - the port side where the propane gas locker is fitted in the rear locker.

It seems almost impossible to get the nuts onto the bolts that would be inserted through the deck on the port aft foot simply because the propane gas locker structure is in the way. Does anyone have any advise of acceptable methods of attaching this foot in this location? Can we drill a larger access hole in the propane locker structure? Is it better to have longer bolts that go through the propane locker structure with some for a support between the deck undersurface and the locker "ceiling" upper surface?

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Tony
SM#443-GRAND CRU