bow hook repair

[jwburkert]

First season of owning my ,72 19'-6 under my belt time to address some issues.
I am having motor work done and thankfully it is in good shape for it's age.

One of the first items on the hull I need to address is the bow hook. it is coming loose and needs to be replaced.
I have opened the access port in the large center bow box but I can't see the bow hook from that access point. It appears that the hook is installed a good 8 to 12 inches below that access point.
My first thought is to remove the existing hook fill and repair the holes. Then instal a new hook at a point accessible from the access port that currently exist. This would raise the hook up the bow about 12 inches.
Looking for suggestions

[flounderpounder225]

I would NOT raise the bow eye, its placement is correct for the angle of cranking the boat up on the trailer, with the relative height of a winch post.  What has come loose, is probably the backing inside the hull which is normally a block of wood fiberglassed for reinforcement behind the bow eye.  The material gets water in it, and rots, then the eye is "loose".  The best way to get access is open up a FWD hatch etc... and figure where to install an access plate "Pie Plate" then get in there and remove the eye, clean the area up, and reinstall the eye using some type of backing plate, aluminum, stainless, 1/2" piece of starboard etc... seal it up with 4200 or 5200 where the eye goes through the bow.  This is exactly what I have done on my Osprey, and previous boats, and many others on here, there is a thread on it I think?

[seabob4]

I was able to reach Fernando's bow eye going over the top of the liner and down to tighten it up on his 19-6.  The bow block was in good shape, but probably had become compressed over time, yanking the boat out thousands of times...

[wingtime]

Add what model boat you have to your signature so we know what you are working on.

[TheKid]

Had same issue in my 222FFV. Luckily the floor of the forward hatch was hastily installed with one layer of loose fiberglass. A few passes with a utility knife and it came right out.

I then cabisol'd an 8"x2" aluminum backing plate and bolted it up.

Good to go!!!

[SaltH2OHokie]

I was able to reach Fernando's bow eye going over the top of the liner and down to tighten it up on his 19-6.  The bow block was in good shape, but probably had become compressed over time, yanking the boat out thousands of times...

Like to dredge this thread back up, specifically your comment seabob...mine is loose, and I assumed rotten backing was the cause, but I reached over there last night and right before my hand felt like it couldn't get any lower between hitting what I assume to be the convergence of the casting deck, the 2 vent hoses and the outer hull skin, I felt what seemed to be a block of something solid glassed to the other hull...but I couldn't feel any studs/nuts.  Do I need to just get lower?  It wasn't that my arm wasn't long enough to reach over and down, it was that my hand hit solid resistance in every direction  :(  

I was thinking of putting a 6" pie-plate in the front wall of the cooler/box and I assume I could get it that way...that correct?

If it is solid backing I'm feeling, and the eye/u-bolt is just loose, no harm in tightening and bedding it in some sealant for the time being, correct?

[SaltH2OHokie]

Dug into this Sunday AM.  Nuts on my eye were not loose, and the backing wasn't terribly rotten...my problems was the nuts were rusted almost completely away  

Cut a hole in the front of the ice/fish/cooler compartment sized to accommodate a 6" pie-plate.  Sawzall'd the old u-bolt off from the outside, punched the cutoff studs into the boat, pulled them out through my new access hole.  

Then I cut a piece of anodized aluminum as a big backing washer and installed the new one.  Pie-plate installed and done  

[SaltH2OHokie]

[SaltH2OHokie]

[CLM65]

Nice clean job!  Looks great

[SaltH2OHokie]

Nice clean job!  Looks great

Thanks.  Wife asked if I was really going to cut a hole in "our new boat"...I told her it was 39 years old...hardly a 'new' boat  

[RickK]

Yup, nice work.  
I replaced the block on my 170 and drilled the holes through it, stuck the eye bolt into the holes and then found out that now the eye bolt was about an inch too short     Hate when that happens :(
Had to track down a longer bolt and finally found an 8" bolt (wasn't a lot of choices out there in that length) - tested it yesterday and it's fine with length to spare.

EDIT: Moved to Rebuild Forum (It was the reference to the sawzall that triggered it    ).

[SaltH2OHokie]

Note the relatively good condition (relative to the rusty crap that was inside) of the portion of the u-bolt that was outside of the boat...

And the sawzall is not my go-to cutting tool, but it seemed best for this application.  It's actually #4 behind Oxy/Acetylene, plasma cutter, and grinder  8)  

[seabob4]

Ryan, Rick,
Unfortunately, too many builders do not allow access to the back side of both bow eyes and stern eyes, assuming since they use locknuts, they'll never have to be serviced...but they do.  Bow eyes can undergo thousands of launches and retrieves, and being a fan of transom tiedowns from the stern eyes to the trailer frame, they also absorb a hell of a lot of stress over the road.

It's no sin in my eyes to provide a small plate (can use the 4" size) directly behind the nuts to allow tightening over time...

[SaltH2OHokie]

I went with 6" only because I wasn't 100% confident that I was cutting directly behind it...figured a little room to wiggle my arm up or down as necessary would be prudent.  That said, if I had it to do over, I'd have gone 4" and cheated toward the top of the compartment, for what little difference that would have made.