Deck mounts for traveler

asj

New Member
Both of the screws holding one of the traveler attachment loops to the deck of my Sunfish snapped when a well-intentioned friend was helping me to move my boat. When I examined the remnants of the screws, their threads appeared to have the shallow angles characteristic of screws that would have nuts on their other end, as opposed to a self-tapping type of screw. Obviously, there's no way I can get underneath and learn the answer to this dilemma. The real question, of course, is how to reattach the loop to the deck. Should I simply drill out the remants of the old screws, get some stainless self-tapping screws, add some 5200 adhesive, and hope for the best? Any notes on previous experiences would be appreciated.
 
Allen,
It would appear your boat is fairly new. Older boats had a wood block to back up attacment points and used wood screws. Newer boat allegedly have aluminum backing plates. As I only have experiance on older boats, I would contact someone like Daniel at Wind Line Sails (http://www.windline.net/index.html) and see ahat he says. I had installed a 5" port in front of the rudder to install the rudder upgrade. Since the wood screws were loose and I had the port, I used a sheet rock saw to cut out the foam block to get to the wood blocks on either side, kind of wedge shape chunk. I then re-installed the eye loops for the traveler with #10 stainless marine Oval head bolts, stainless fender washes under the wood, stainless ny-lock nuts and a dab of 3M 4200 sealant. I re-secured the cut out pieces of foam with some expanding foam (like Great Stuff) in a can. Nothing has moved in a year or so since I made the repair. Again check with Daniel first.
 

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