I’m planning to pick up an Annapolis wherry in a few weeks and carry it home on my cartop carriers. My question is this: how do I attach lines at the bow and the stern? I’ll need to bring some hardware with me, I suppose, but what? And where do I put it? Normally I would attach two lines at the bow and one or two lines at the stern (in addition to the two straps that hold the boat to the cartop carriers). But when I look at pictures of the AW it’s not obvious how I do that.
I guess it depends on just how permanent you want to make the attachment points. You could through-bolt a padeye to the breasthook and to each of the knees and attach the lines there.
Alternatively, you could use c-clamps (with backing boards to protect the breasthook and knees), crank them down really tight and tie the lines to the clamps if you didn’t want a permanent attachment. Just be sure to check the clamp pressure after a few miles of driving to make sure that they haven’t shaken loose. Wiring the clamps might be the best option.
Personally, I’d go for the padeyes. It’s always good to have permanent tie points on a boat. In addition to having a place to tie bow and stern lines for cartopping, it’s also very useful out on the water. There’s a place for an anchor line and for lines to tie up to a dock. They’re also useful for securing gear in the event of a capsize or swamping, or just to keep the boat neat.
CLC sells 2 different kinds of metal ones, one brass, the other bronze. Both look really classy on a varnished wood surface.
Laszlo
You say I should “through bolt” the pad eyes. The ones I’ve seen, such as the CLC ones above, seem to take screws. Am I mistaken about that?
They take either. CLC gives you the size of the wood screw that the padeye will take to screw it into a piece of wood. For the brass padeye that’s a #8 screw. That’s nominally 0.164 inches or 4.17 mm in diameter. An 8-32 bronze oval head machine screw would be perfect for through-bolting, along with the appropriate washer, locknut and nut. If you feel metric, M4 hardware will work, too.
A screw has the possibility of eventually pulling out, especially if water ever gets into the hole (see Drill, Fill, Drill in the Shop Tips). Bolting the padeye in place prevents that.
Laszlo
Thank you. I’ll do that. You don’t happen to know the thickness of the breasthook and knees, do you?
I might add that fairwindsfasteners.com sells small quantities of very high quality 316 stainless steel and silicon bronze fasteners at very reasonable prices. Huge selection in both metric and imperial sizes.
Richard,
From CLC’s ad copy - The outwales, breasthook, and quarter knees are solid mahogany.
Based on these pictures from CLC’s Annapolis Wherry construction gallery I’d say 1/2" to 3/4" thick for the breasthook and knees. You can purchase the machine screws long for the drive home and cut them down with a hacksaw after you get there.
Regarding the suggestion to use stainless steel fasteners, depending on the exact kind of brass and whether the 316 stainless steel is activate or passive, the padeye and its fasteners can be as much as 13 rows apart in the galvanic series with as much as 0.4 volt difference in the worst case anodic index. For harsh environments like salt water, 0.15 is the recommended maximum. If the alloys in the padeye and stainless steel fasteners do hit the worst case, you’re looking at the padeye being consumed by corrosion. With the right combination of alloys, it’s perfectly safe to use stainless steel fasteners, but you’d have to research the type of alloy used in both the padeye and fastener. That’s why I recommend bronze fasteners. Any bronze is compatible with any brass. And if you go with the bronze padeye there’s no question.
The other option would be to use a stainless steel padeye with stainless steel fasteners. No chance of corrosion there, but personally, I think the brass or bronze fittings look better. Your boat, your choice.
Laszlo