DIY gone wrong!

[Paikea]

As part of planned mods to make it easier to drive my boat onto the Trailer I originally bought a Boat Latch unit but found that it required a different winch post which seemed too much trouble. Got a Boat Catch unit for an early Christmas present and proceeded to fit that.

Winch and winch post all good, no problem however the boat hook that must be fitted to the bow has to be thru bolted to the inside of the bow. A very solid system and all bits supplied plus a great how to install video. When I looked in my anchor well it was evident that the bolts for the hook unit would be lower than the floor of the anchor well. Problem is, my boat has a full moulded fibreglass liner which means that there is no access to the back of the bow below the anchor well floor.

I positioned the hook, marked the holes and then used a very long small drill to go through the bow and ended up through the back of the anchor well floor. That showed me where I would need to cut a hole in the anchor well floor to get access to the nuts. Fortunately I have an inspection camera that fits through an 8 mm hole so I drilled a hole in the back of the anchor well floor and had a look. Seemed to be plenty of space between the floor and the liner so I decided to drill a 100mm hole in the anchor well floor which would give me enough access to fit and tighten the nuts.

Started the hole saw, all good, floor was 30 mm ply, not too difficult except the saw grabbed right at the end. Access great, all looked good so I got my mate who has smaller hands than me to fit the bits at the back of the bow (a V shaped Teflon spacer etc) apply Sikaflex (I gave him a pair of surgical gloves but he still got it all over himself) run the nuts on and tighten the lot.

He then said "I can see right through the hull here" Sure enough, there was a narrow gouge about 40 mm long right through the glass. When I had a closer look it was evident that when the hole saw grabbed at the end it actually made contact with the hull and cut through it. Bugger!

Anyway, not difficult to fix but a red face none the less. I was going to keep quiet about it but someone was sure to find out so best if my Raider mates hear it from me and give me some sympathy (yeah, that will happen, not!)

Hopefully if any other raiders want to fit a bow hook in a double skinned boat my experience may be of help.

Cheers

Paikea

The bow hook in place.

The Anchor Well floor, cut through the hull is at bottom right.

The inspection port fitted to the Anchor Well

The completed installation.

[chocolate]

That's funny only cause something similar happened to me, I fitted a big bilge pump on my boat a I drill a holes straight through the hull as it was very close to the inner skin, LOL.

[Jocler]

^{The finished product looks good. We will keep quiet about the journey but can see myself doing something similar.}

^J

Edited December 27, 2014 by Jocler

[batfishing]

So we need to get together now during the next week.

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[Floating_Medic]

Dont feel bad mate, when I decided I wanted to put in a bung to empty out any water that would end up in my fuel tanks well just under the floor of the deck, I thought there was a space between the bottom of the fuel tanks well and the hull but when the drill went right through and I could see the driveway below I instantly panicked and felt like a right idiot. I was going to try to fix it myself but ended up getting in a professional to fix it for me as I was going to need to glass it from the outside. Only ended up costing me about $100 so I wasnt too red faced. I then ended up installing the bung to face towards the rear of the boat and this time it worked and the water that would accumulate in there from skiers and tubers getting in and out of the boat I would just let it drain into the hull when it would get near full and then at the end of the day I would just drain the hull buy filling it a fair bit with the hose then just opening the bungs at the rear. I didnt like to let any salt water settle in there at all hence the flushing with tap water.

[PRED-ATOR]

dont feel too bad mate, i accidentally drilled a hole into the bottom of my old tinnie. only realised when i was under the brooklyn rail bridge and the fuel tanks were floating lol.

Easy fix but felt like an idiot.

[Paikea]

So we need to get together now during the next week.

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Hi Ian

Steve and I tried it out yesterday, total disaster, scratched the hull and generally had a rant.

The problem seems to be some of the wobble rollers having to negotiate the planning strakes as the boat goes up which then throws the boat out of line with no hope of recovering it.

It looks like the rollers have not been installed correctly. I am trying to figure out how to correct matters but one thoroughly pissed off puppy at present.

Could do with some expert input if you are available some time.

Cheers

Paikea

[batfishing]

Up on the harbour tonight, Daughter wants a day in the boat on Friday befit shepherds to Nepal that night,

Will text/call you after that

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