Drilling into the deck at the mast

[John Rushing]

Has anyone put pad eyes at the base of the mast? What would I be drilling into on a Hunter 34 from 1984?

This is an ASAP situation. Any help is appreciated.

JR

 

[kloudie1]

Hey, John.. The area around the mast base has an overlay of maybe 1/2" then under that is an aluminum plate that is , I think, about 1/4 inch thick. Best is to drill and tap into the plate to hold the pad eyes.. The plate is all over that raised area under the mast. It extends to close to the edge of the raised area.. Through bolts aren't really an option because you can't easily get at the underside of the plate. Here is a shot of the area and the pad eyes on my 34..
Those two small ones are for the reefing lines, and I think were original to the boat

 

[kloudie1]

Most fastener stores will have a kit that has the tap and the correct size drill bit. Some of the mast wiring goes to port side from under the mast.. ya don't want to drill through those wires.

 

[kito]

Are you installing more than one? If so, maybe consider one or two of these from Garhauer instead. I installed one on each side of the mast. I also installed a large pad eye to the front just for my vang. I through bolted all of mine though.....no aluminum plate on mine.

 

[braol]

I ordered the whole Garhauer mast base plate, rectangular plate with holes all around. But my mast is deck stepped, I don't know about yours...