TOPIC: broken bow eye help

Hello all. I've posted before on identifying our new lil boat. Been taking her out alot. This 1962 16 ft glasspar has been amazing! Until last night. Launched her in, caught two amazing fish, then headed back in just before dark. All was fine until we hooked the winch strap up to the bow eye and started pulling her in. Done this plenty of times never an issue. Back to the story. Winched her up and pulled her out of the water...as we pull the boat and trailer out BAM! the bow eye snaps off. Leaving a 2 ft gap when she slides back. My hubby decides to hook tbe winch up to the cleats and pull her back up. He gets her up and starts getting her road worthy. Removing the drain plugs is the important part of this ending.....withing 2 mins of this action the cleats break off and she slides half way off the trailer. Without thinking he puts her in reverse and puts her back in the water to try to get her back on the trailer to try to secure her enough to get home. All of this happens in a matter of 5 mins. I didn't know he took the drain plugs out. After 45 mins of trying to get her back on the trailer and winched up I notice the boat 3 ft full of water. OMG why did you take the plugs out dear?!?!?! Bilge pump on, dive to put plugs back in, and start bailing and removing items that are heavy.

After 3 hours the water is out, rigged up the boat enough to get her on the trailer and finally made it home. Everything is wet, bow eye broken and several cleats busted.

Any help on how to sure another bow eye and what to look for damage wise. She has an I/O penta 110. I'm going out now to assess the situation. What a night and major disaster. Glad to be home safe and the boat in one piece.

i pulled my boweye out going to a meet several years ago. luckily it was screwed in to a wood backing plate so it did no damage, other than embarassment. my buddy (houston)put a new one in when we arrived at the meet. a few pics..sorry i have no idea how to repair it, but you'll get plenty of help here. : :

let me add how he got under there was a feat in itself, because it has a tunnel hull.

Just went out assess damage....water in oil and everything wet. Not sure where to even start. Main focus is getting water out of the wngine. My hubby knows nothing about boats and engines so it's up to me to get her fixed up. My knowledge is in cars. I do have boat mechanics as phone help if needed. I'm assuming I have to drain the oil a few times and dry everything up. Any suggestions on what else to check? How to go about the steps? I'm pretty overwhelmed at the moment. I really don't want to lose the engine and it's been about 16 hours since this mess started. I'm trying to figure out where to start....thank you all for your help in advance!

Three broad problem areas; mechanical, electrical, and electronic.

Mechanical: the longer you leave it, the greater the risk of having to fully strip it down, and the risk of needing to replace or recondition parts. Replace the oil, Remove the plugs Pour some ATF fluid in the plugs and hand crank the motor a minimum of 3-4 revs.

Electrical components: many of these are electromechanical. Remove All electrical components. Tear them down and spray them down with WD-40 and then air dry them.

The worst of the damage will have been done in the first few minutes, while there was still some remaining charge in the battery, as a result of electrolysis. Thereafter damage will be slower, but any ferrous parts will gradually corrode independently of battery-driven current.

Electronic components: these will be very suspect, even though immersion was only brief, but you just might get away with it. First essentials are to get rid of any corrosion products. Wash copiously in warm fresh water (obviously with no power source connected) then leave in a warm place to dry thoroughly. For corrosion products you will have more of a problem; if superficial you may get away with the same technique; if deeply contaminated and/or if circuit significantly eaten away you may have to replace the component or the circuit.

Speed of remedial work is the essence.

Don't forget to notify your insurance company, because the engine could well be beyond economic repair.


Do you have interior access to the areas for the cleats and the Bow Eye? If so the repairs for them are fairly straight forward.

Thank you so much for your advice. I spent the entire day working on this. Took the plugs out, drained out more water than oil, did two oil changes with new filters, it was a very long process but on the final change started her up and ran her for 20 mins. All seems good at the moment. Checked everything and made,sure it was clean and dry before I put it all back together to run her. Now for the cosmetic. At this point it's time to install a safety chain. The bow eye stripped out and flew off the bolt. There was only 1/2 inch of bolt holding her on. This is a good opportunity to switch to a better stronger bow eye and safety chain. The cleats are just loose at this point. For a 53 yr old boat it's time for some upgrades. We have a very nice trailer and winch so some small changes should make sure this doesn't happen again.

For the moment it seems my quick action and help from many sources, just may have saved her. I'm going to do one more oil change and new filter along with new plugs today. The plugs weren't wet and I took them out before hand cranking. All looks good for how. She ran good and kicked right over.

Any suggestions on a better bow eye or length of bolt? I will post a photo of what's on there. It doesn't seem remotely strong enough.

klassickitten,

CONGRADS on getting your I/O engine going again!!! = LUCKY DOG, LUCKY DOG!!!

IF I was doing it, I would replace the broken bow-eye with a NEW stainless steel bow-eye, backing it with a good scrap of 1.5 inch thick piece of OAK. = That should be a decades-long, ONE-time, fix for avoiding another "unpleasant incident".
(YES, I had to do the exact same repair-job on a 1960s FG boat, some years ago.)

BEST WISHES, satx

agree... but i'd use a pressure treated 2x4 around 8" long if it will fit. hell,,, better yet a good size of mahogony. thats what was used to re-build my front bench seat frame.

Just went out assess damage....water in oil and everything wet. Not sure where to even start. Main focus is getting water out of the wngine. My hubby knows nothing about boats and engines so it's up to me to get her fixed up. My knowledge is in cars. I do have boat mechanics as phone help if needed. I'm assuming I have to drain the oil a few times and dry everything up. Any suggestions on what else to check? How to go about the steps? I'm pretty overwhelmed at the moment. I really don't want to lose the engine and it's been about 16 hours since this mess started. I'm trying to figure out where to start....thank you all for your help in advance!

Finally climbed into the bow, behind the fuel tank (how in the world is anyone supposed to get up there) so......looks like a 4" bolt with no washers, no backing, and hanging on by a thread. All looks like original parts and the previous owner may have tried to secure it up with a patch of cheap fiberglass resin....silly if you ask me! Luckily the fiberglass didn't break or crack just the bow eye flew off the bolt from corrosion I assume. I live close to a,marine hardware who sells what looks like good ss single bolt bow eyes by sea dog. I'd love to put in a U bolt type but I'm not really into drilling more holes in the boat than I have too.

The safety chain is a whole diff issue. I'm not sure how to install it or find steps to do so. I'm assuming I'm gonna have to drill another hole or two.

After I get the new bow eye in does anyone have any suggestions on how to seal it up? Marine silicone, marine tex? There appears to be some outside patches around the bow eye. So at some point someone thought it was loose. So why replace it....just put resin on it....that fixes everything I guess.....some people are silly!

This is the eye that flew off....cheap Japan made junk. Totally stripped out inside.

Definitely wanna get her back in the water as soon as I can!

klassickitten,

A piece of HARDWOOD of an appropriate size & a NEW (and AMERICAN-made, imVho) boweye, combined with some "spot repair" with epoxy/polyester/paint should fix your hull right up.

I'll leave the water problems to our REAL EXPERTS here, though it sounds like that you've made a good start to fixing THE MESS.
(Fyi, I've had a storm sink a 21 foot utility some 15 years ago & getting all the saltwater out of everything & cleaning everything up was a REAL TRIAL & NOT "a cheap fix", either.)

BEST WISHES, satx

klassickitten:

Sorry to hear about the bad luck on your Glasspar.

We have some extra OEM Glasspar Bow Eyes through our East Coast Glasspar Association which one of our members (Mike D.) took off assorted Glasspar Projects we have. If you can show me a picture of what that bow eye looked like I can send you one that we have if you want.

I hand carved a new piece of hardwood to fit snugly and then put a few layers of glass over it.

On the inside, I'd recommend using large SS Fender washers with the SS bolt and fabricate a backer board from 3/4" plywood coated with epoxy or Polyester Bondo Hair. I'd then Bed the entire assembly in the bondo hair after thoroughly cleaning the area with a wire brush and Acetone. On the outside I'd use a R/O sander and 60 grit to sand down and re shape the bow area and make it look a bit more presentable before inserting the bolt on the inside. The bondo Hair "Goop" will ooze out of the hole when you install the assembly so tape over the threads. Use a putty knife on the outside to clean it up and seal the hole. Use tape on the inside to hold it in place till it cures in 30-45 mins. You can then use rattle can Rustoleum paint to touch up the bow and you'll barely know you were there.

Finally put her in the water yest for her first sea trial after almost sinking. I'm so happy to say it was a beautiful trip! She ran like new and the bow eye never worked better! We alao got all the lights working and some new LED lights installed on the bimini top. Along with switches for the batteries and guages. Spent 13 hours on the lake today fishing and caught 8 20"-28" triploid trout and Kokanee. It was a great day!

Thank you all for all your help and advice. Most definitely wouldn't have had such a great turn around and success with out it!

klassickitten,

CONGRADS on the resurrection of your nice rig.

yours, satx

Very good thread!
Was the semi-sinking in salt or fresh water?
The one thing I would add to the mechanical follow up would be removal and disassembly of the starter to thoroughly dry it out.
It may still work right now, but if water was able to get into it, rust or corrosion will eventually cause failure.

Sounds like an awesome day of fishing!!!
I've never caught a Kokanee, but I've caught the Triploid, and found them to be very tasty!
doc Frankenmerc

Thanks for the advice! Our near sinking was in fresh lake water. I actually disassembled all electrical parts and cleaned and dried well before reinstalling. I think I was able to avoid further damage or disaster. My knowledge of engines and the help from you fine folks really did help avoid a loss. Once winter comes it will be time for some good cleaning and redo the hull for new paint and a few upgrades. For now thus fine classic is really doing well.

Still haven't figured out the model of the boat but did find out she's a 62 not a 65. She has alot of diff parts and options which is making it hard to pin down a model. Now that I know the I/O is a BB70 it's helping in the research tho.