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Bow Eye hole?

PostPosted: Wed Jan 02, 2019 8:45 pm
by riverron
I am thinking about drilling the hole and installing the bow eye now that I have the hull upside down. Did builders drill/fill/drill the holes? The manual doesn’t specifically say, except to use 3M 5200.

Also, I looked at the plans and didn’t see any measurements on location. Did you just eye it? Looks like slightly higher than boot stripe?

Thanks

Re: Bow Eye hole?

PostPosted: Sat Jan 05, 2019 12:44 pm
by mark48
Hi Ron,

Yes, I'm pretty sure most of us D-F-D'd the bow-eye holes. I just can't imagine thinking about all that water surging against the bow without having protected the holes with epoxy fill. However, when I asked CLC's John Harris this question, he responded: "Drill-fill-drill would make it stronger, yes. I think I both painted the holes with epoxy AND used 3M 52-million, and have had no trouble with it. But creating a solid epoxy fill can only make it stronger."

Regarding the positioning of the holes, some builders scale the location off the plans. When I asked John Harris the location question, he responded: "I went looking for an actual printed measurement for its location and couldn't find one. Maybe it's somewhere in the vastness of the documentation, but I made a quick diagram. This shows the bow eye location if you measure down with a flexible rule around the profile of the stem." He sent me a PDF file which I can email you, but his diagram locates the center of the bow eye as 31 1/16" below the top plane of the breasthook, measured with a flexible rule along the curve of the bow.

There is at least one blog detailing an approach to the bow eye installation. See Dana Cole's 3/15/15 entry on http://danacolepocketshipbuild.blogspot ... date=false. I had also asked CLC their opinion of installing a reinforcing bit of wood on the interior of the bow to distribute the load on the bow-eye (as Dana did in his build). Their reply was that reinforcement seemed unnecessary given the overall construction, but such an installation could be done while the bow compartment was open - but not after closure when the only access was through the inspection hole.

Hope this helps, and all the best,
Mark

Re: Bow Eye hole?

PostPosted: Sat Jan 05, 2019 8:44 pm
by riverron
Thanks Mark! This helps! I will plan on doing the drill/fill/drill.

I sent you a pm with my email.