As is appearant from the first picture, my chainplate knees have suffered extensive water intrusion.  I chose to remove the knees entirely, replace them with 1" thick mahogany, epoxy and fiberglass that into place and then remount new chainplates externally, through bolted with large stainless backing plates.  The second picture clearly shows an opening up into the hollow bulwark which I believe is the primary source of water that has rotted the wood inside the knees.  Most of my knees were saturated with water; only two were dry.

     My new chainplates are 304 ss, 2" x 3/8" and highly polished.  Mounting hardware was upgraded to 1/2" carriage bolts made of 18-8 stainless (304).  Although the replacement job is basically pretty straight forward, it did involve body contortions and gymnastics to cut the original fiberglass knees free of the hull.  I don't know what I'd have done if it weren't for my Fein Multi-Master.  Great care was taken to preserve the teak joinery interior.  Because Terra Nova is a ketch, there were twelve chainplates to replace.  It was a huge job, but worth all the effort and expence.  Next time we sail offshore that's one less problem I'll have to worry about.

Ralph Richardson
TERRA NOVA
T-37 ketch #406
Portland, Oregon