It's not my boat, so I can't say for sure what he has for the chainplates.
I am fairly sure that the heavier bow chainplates were introduced at the same time as the spinnaker. I think that there was a pair supplied with the spinnaker kit (about 1997 ?) and have been on all Dart 18s since then. I have also seen sidestay chainplates with cracks. They should be checked regularly on older Darts.