I was inspecting my boat for a regatta this weekend and found two broken slugs on my rear beam. My friend has some spares, but it looks like I have to take the rear beam loose to change them out. Can I take the straps off the one offending corner, swap them out, bolt it down, and race? Seems like I have read of people bedding the beams in caulking before for stiffening.
Rob
"If at first you do not suceed, well, so much for sky diving"
Cross tubes should always be bedded. Salt water and grit likes to accumulate in the saddles where you have stainless steel bolts in contact with aluminum.
I replaced the tramp on my Nacra 5.0 about a month ago and it should be similar. Yes, I just had to unbolt the beam on one side and the beams were not bedded down. I did the starboard side and my boat does not have the straps, just the two bolts inside the beam and a chock. Those bolts are only supposed to be torqued down to about 18 ft lbs so I brought a torque wrench with me and set it to 19 ft lbs when I took them off. This was to avoid twisting out the studs if the nut was seized on. Then set it to 18ftlbs and stopped on the first click when I retightened them. Easy Peasy but my boat is a life long freshwater boat so your mileage may vary.