Thanks Tyler and Lawrence- just ordered Casey's book (looks like a good investment for the long haul despite the $s!) and since the West folks are recommending reinforcing from both sides, will charge ahead with adding a bow eye (if anyone has a particular eye style/size/placement to recommend, do let me know). Now to clean up the old beater tin can powerboat so we can get on the water this weekend while the Monty awaits my getting up the courage to take the dremel tool to her beautiful hull.... Alex On Thu, Jun 18, 2020 at 5:29 AM Lawrence Winiarski via montgomery_boats < montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> wrote:
I put a bow eye in mine. Basically I cut a rectangular hole (with rounded corners) from the inside through the liner I think I used a dremel and a little "fatmax" close-quarters hacksaw which you can put in jig saw blades. Then I got the catalina 22 boweye plug which I had to cut down and a thick stainless 1/2 bow eye from seachoice (part 33730). As memory serves, the hull was fairly rounded on the inside and the trapezoidal plug wasn't a particularly good fit. Also I think Ioverdrilled the bow-eye holes and filled them again.
I didn't do a very neat job on expoxying in the plug, but I seem to remember that the key was using silica thickener to keep it fromruinning. A lot dripped down as I was trying to get it in and I used some syringes to fill in from the top..It was pretty ugly, but it was definitely stuck in there. A "lot" of epoxy dripped down in the space between the outside and liner.
I remember It was a pretty close fit with the bolt heads just about hitting the liner but not quite.
Then I made a little "lip" on the inside with some fr4 and epoxied back in the rectangular piece.
On Wednesday, June 17, 2020, 5:44:03 PM PDT, Alex Conley < conley.alex@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello all,
The attached pdf gives a good overview of the crack in the bow of my M15 and my repair thoughts (I prepared it to send to one of the West System tech advisors). Any input and advice any of you have would be most welcome- I'm a newbie to fiberglass repair and I'm looking forward to getting this fixed so I too can get the boat in the water!
A secondary question- I'm actually starting to wonder if I should repair from inside. If I do open up the hull liner, is it worth adding a bow eye bolted through the stem? Has anyone retrofitted one and what would be the best way to install it? For those boats with one from the factory, how is it reinforced on the inside of the stem?
Hope others are enjoying the sailing season!
Alex Conley conley.alex@gmail.com