Fastening bronze fairlead to gunwhale

[cjnd]

Hi,

I am new to this forum and am finishing my 16 foot clinker open dinghy, Blossom which Tim Gilmore of Birdham Pool, Chichester built for me.

I have a pair of old bronze fairleads that I want to fasten to the sapele gunwhale.
As well as using bronze screws, should I use something like butyl tape to fasten them?

I attach photos of Blossom and the fairleads.

Kind regards,

Chris

[Andrew Donald]

Chris , I have similar on a build I’m doing and will bed them on a peanut butter thin layer of epoxy so they won’t work putting stress on screws. Screw holes will drilled over size and screws inserted in epoxy nuggets in holes.

[Peerie Maa]

Welcome to the forum.
Lovely punt and nice fairleads.

There are 5 screws in each fairlead, so I don't think that they will work and over stress the fastenings if you use the correct size screw. After all, those fairleads have been perfected over a century or more of development. If you glue them on with epoxy, you will need a blow lamp to get them off should you ever need to.
Again, I don't think that over drilling and making an epoxy plug is good in this application. It would be OK if you are tapping the hole for machine screws, but wood screws are not designed to be driven into epoxy plugs. The torque needed to cut the threads in solid epoxy may well shear off the screw.
Forgo the epoxy plugs, ensure that you are drilling the correct size hole and pilot hole for the screw, and lubricate the screws with varnish when you drive them. Bed the fairleads in thick old varnish, or a proprietary goop, and you should be good to go.

[Andrew Donald]

Nick
Different strokes ………
that how I’m doing mine but seeing your reply for a different build style of boat I bow to your superior method for that boat ….. ��

[wizbang 13]

butyl tape is a good bedding , a bad fastening.
Are you sure you want to load the boat with fittins just because you HAVE them ? sorta like a scullin notch that never gets used...jus fer show.

[Peerie Maa]

butyl tape is a good bedding , a bad fastening.
Are you sure you want to load the boat with fittins just because you HAVE them ? sorta like a scullin notch that never gets used...jus fer show.

Peerie Maa has one of those (but galvanized) for the anchor rode.
finished 006.jpg

[johngsandusky]

I just use screws to add hardware.
Pretty boat!

[wizbang 13]

Peerie Maa has one of those (but galvanized) for the anchor rode.
finished 006.jpg

paint ain't even worn away.
scullin notch is a better fairlead anyway.

[Jim Ledger]

It'd be a shame to interrupt that nice sheerline if you don't need to. That's a really sweet looking craft.

Jim

[Peerie Maa]

paint ain't even worn away.
scullin notch is a better fairlead anyway.

Good paint.
I don't anchor stern to, it can get uncomfortable in a chop.

[JimConlin]

That’s an especially elegant bit of hardware. The boat is lovely, too.

I’d use ordinary bronze wood screws. With five screws going into a relatively skinny member, it’s important to size the holes not to risk splitting, so be very careful to drill the correct diameter and depth. Use tapered drill bits if you can.

Using potted machine screws into lumps of epoxy works well in larger members, but the cross-section bored away in this case unduly weakens the member.

For bedding, I’d use a traditional bedding compound such as Dolfinite.

[JamesCaird]

Fairleads? Why not bow chocks? Maybe a fairlead at the bow is a bow chock? I think the chocks shown are a bit too clunky for that nice bow. (my 2 cents) It needs a pair that fit to the stem and the gunwale. Cheers/ JC

[Gordon Bartlett]

I, too, would call them chocks. Just another name for that style of fairlead. Personally, I think they look great on a boat,and they minimize chaffeing. I have added them to any boat of mine that didn't already have them.

[Canoeyawl]

The chocks are lovely but I wouldn't use them on that boat.
Small bots tend to move around so much that the line will likely flip right out of them except an anchor rode.
(I might use a short length of half-oval brass as chafing gear on the top and call it good.)

[rbgarr]

Nice boat but what do you need the fairleads/chocks for? A spliced or tied line through your bow eye low on the stem probably will do everything you need. A fisherman's bend is a good knot for it: https://kids.britannica.com/students...bly/view/53544

[Autonomous]

Agree on the painter.
Those are some gorgeous chocks and I'd want to feature them too. In the same vein, I have a beautiful art deco mooring bit that does not match any of my fleet, so it is windowsill art.

[BillP]

Nice boat. I'd bed with polysulfide. I replaced leaking portholes bedded with butyl and it wasn't satisfactory. Could have been the butyl or application by the previous owner but it didn't live up to all the great buzz it gets. Works fine on my metal roof ridge caps though. What's up with those fairleads having a screw where the line rides...seems that could make for serious chafe?

[John Meachen]

I would use butyl rubber from a tube,it exists and isn't as viscous as the tape I have encountered.This one works https://www.arbo.co.uk/products/mast...s/arbomast-br/ .The clean up technique is a bit different,you need a small and slightly dried out pellet of the mastic to dab on the squeeze out and it will lift it away from the joint.Scraping and solvents are not as effective.