O'Day 19 Bow Eye

[yeahmag]

Brand new owner of a used O'Day 19. I'm working on slowly replacing the standing rigging from DR Marine, but I also need to replace the bow eye as it broke on the shank. The bow itself still seems in fine shape as does the wood behind it, but I have yet to cut an inspection hole through the inner liner to verify that.

I was thinking this piece looked almost identical:

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wc...&subdeptNum=50046&classNum=50054#.UGClcqRU029

Does anyone have any words of advise or experience replacing this?

Thanks.

-Aaron

 

[Sunbird22358]

Yes, don't buy that bow-eye!! You want a quality stainless-steel or bronze eye, not zinc-coated steel. Steel rusts even in feshwater, stainless or bronze are boating metals and may outlast the boat.

I haven't replaced the bow eye, but I did remove and rebed the one on my DS II. I had a 4" deckplate in the forward bulkhead, added by the previous owner when he replaced the bow eye. I actually replaced that deckplate with a 9"x12" access hatch, but a 6" or 8" deck plate (like Beckson screw-in) should give enough access to get a wrench and your hand in there. The advantage of the hatch was that I was able to much easier remove the foam chunks in the forward compartmant (not sure if the 19 has foam up there too?) and also remove the wood block that backed up the bow eye and coat it with epoxy before reassembling everything.

 

[yeahmag]

Thanks. Found some Bronze ones easily:

http://www.deepblueyachtsupply.com/...mber/00BE300?gclid=CJbHs6_szrICFad7QgodMU4AKQ

I'll look for some stainless ones too... Once I get the inspection port cut I'll know what I'm up against!

 

[jberube85]

I just did this on my oday 22 and hated that boweye so i filled the hole with thickend epoxy drilled 2 new holes and purchaced a stainless U-bolt and further backed it with a piece of 3x4 1/8th in stainless plate as my old eye bolt like yours was pulling through and the new u-bold works awsome.


here is the one I bought

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wc...toreNum=50045&subdeptNum=50046&classNum=50054

 

[yeahmag]

I'm planning on going the same route myself. Just picked up a dual post bow eye, 6" inspection port, etc...

 

[yeahmag]

So here is a pictorial of what I ended up doing. You'll see the new inspection port after removing two kitchen sized garbage bags worth of "chunked" foam. Followed by the hole in the bow. Finally a picture of the new oak backing against what was left of the old wooden backing.

I did go with the U shaped, stainless, 2500lb rating bow eye. That obviously required a new hole. Everything was filled and/or slathered with Life Caulk.