Foredeck eye for spi pole downhaul flew away! How to fit a new one?

[Zen Zero]

3 workmates took a day off yesterday to play with a spinnaker. Today we are asking the forum for boat repair advice.

None of us had any recent relevant experience but we got the thing up and were experimenting with different positions of things when the eye in the middle of the foredeck to which the downhaul's snatch block was fastened flew away and went for a swim (in >100m).

The pole went up, came back and the sail immediately assumed a more natural shape (suggesting that we had been doing something wrong that required more of our now defunct pad eye's fastening than it was physically capable of providing). In fact, the base of an unused baby-stay, was pressed into service to allow us to continue our exercise and we slowly started to acquire a small amount of familiararity with the techniques.

The the baby-stay strong point is okay but not ideal, being located in a 10cm wide trough between 2 hatches; better to replace the original eye fwd of the hatches. And so to the point:

There are now simply two holes in the foredeck where the eye used to be. None of us knows exactly how it was fastened. The other side is covered with the inner moulding, which is lined with cabin ceiling trim. There doesen't seem to be a way to take this off without ruining it. I suppose there is some foam between the two mouldings.

Would anyone like to suggest a way of fitting a new strong point for a spi-pole downhaul to a sandwich foredeck without leaving ugly marks on the other (cabin interior) side?

Thanks

Zen, Fab & Fab

 

[Concerto]

First you will need to check if the remaining holes indicate if it was originally fitted throught a section of core deck or if there is any reinforcing in that section. For the loadings this deck eye will undertake are great, so could be a possible weakness in the original design or subsequent fixing of the eye. The only real way to check is to remove a neat section of the moulded cabin lining. This can always be covered with a plywood pad.

The ideal solution would be to fit a large s/s plate to the underside of the deck and then through bolt the new eye. The alternative solution would be to spin an alum key in a drill chuck between the deck core sections to remove the core material. This will allow a epoxy filling of the void to be made, and then the bolts could be tapped into that. This second method will not be as strong.

 

[VicS]

There are now simply two holes in the foredeck where the eye used to be. None of us knows exactly how it was fastened.
Zen, Fab & Fab

My guess is that it was a U bolt with a small backing plate and two nuts where you cannot see them.

If sea water can leak into the joint it will cause crevice corrosion of stainless steel fittings bolted though the deck like this. Lucky not to have lost the mast on friend's boat when a shroud anchor point like this failed in this manner.

When you fit what ever you replace it with make sure the fitting is well sealed so that there are no crevices into which seawater can penetrate.

Well worth checking and resealing other crucial through deck fittings, especially any with rust stains around them