I got the floor in and some basic framing for the berth. It was a pretty challenging week-end, between trying to get the floorboards epoxied, the floatation and flooring installed and the bow-eye installed (oops! not photo!). Anyway, the two big jobs were getting the floatation into the oddly shaped spaces available under the flooring and getting the bow-eye in.
The bow-eye took 4 hours from start to finish! Nobody locally can supply one with long enough bolts to get all the way through the stem. No big deal, right? Just drill the hole a bit bigger and use a coupler nut and some threaded stock to extend as necessary. Not likely! I'm not sure what kind of equipment was used to manufacture the bolts on the eye, but nobody could match either the thread or the size. 5/16 " was too small, 3/8" was too big, and the metric sizes didn't work either. Just fishing a nut down and using an extension socket wasn't really an option because I'm not really keen on depending on the holding power of an unwashered nut in this situation. In the end, I just went out and bought a standard u-bolt and then used a coupler nut and some threaded stock to extend the reach. It's not as attractive, but at least I know it'll stand up to the intended use.
