Add a fitting to fiberglass with inaccesible back?

[5hortBu5]

Hey folks,

The replacement swivel jammer came for my Javelin today, and it's not going to be a bolt-up solution. The old piece had four screws to hold it down, and the new one is a three-screw pattern.

I'm pretty sure I can't get to the 'other' side of the fiberglass on that portion of the centerboard trunk, and even if two of the screw holes line up, I'm not comfortable trusting only two screws to hold my mainsheet fast.

Is there a way I can attach this fixture without dissecting the whole centerboard trunk? Should I just work with what I've got (block, but no cleat) and deal with it in the rapidly-approaching off season?

Whaddya'll think?

[zz4gta]

Ok, I'll ask, what is a "replacement swivel jammer". Only time I've heard of a jammer is when talking about a rope clutch on big boats.

[5hortBu5]

I'm just going by what the part's called over at drmarine.com. It's the fairlead/block and cleat through which my mainsheet ultimately passes. It sits on the centerboard trunk of my dinghy. Here's a photo of the old (left) and new (right):

[COOL]

Just fill the old holes with thickened epoxy .
and drill three new holes for self tapping screws.

[sailingdog]

Why not get some t-nuts and mount them into a small piece of garolite G10 fiberglass... then cover the holes in the T-nuts and then epoxy/fiberglass the piece onto the boat's centerboard trunk. The t-nuts are threaded and if they're epoxied into the garolite, they won't move and will provide a solid place for you to screw the mainsheet base down onto. By using a piece of garolite, you have a very strong piece that is large enough to spread the load out over some area of thickened epoxy. If you don't think the thickened epoxy is strong enough by itself, you could glass the garolite piece in place by adding a couple of layers of fiberglass over it that wrap around to the centerboard trunk.

BTW, you could do much the same with a small piece of wood or plywood, and IMHO, garolite is overkill for a Javelin, which only has 90 Sq ft of mainsail area IIRC.

[zz4gta]

Yea, drill out old FG, fill, and redrill. I wouldn't go the G10 bit, seems pretty overkill.