Bagatelle bow eye replacement

I tried to go sailing at Lake Somerville spent most of the morning trying to raise the mast. Once we had the mast up we went to launch the boat and found that the motor wouldn't run so we pulled the boat back out and I noticed in the morning that the bow eye was loose.

On the way home there was some traffic on 290 coming in. I had to stop suddenly and since the boat wasn't really connected to the winch it slid forward past the winch and so now I have some gel coat to fix.

So I decided to pull out the bow eye that I had bought earlier and put it in the holes that were vacanted by the old bow eye. Looking through the hole I could see that there was no obstructions.The bow eye that I purchased was just a little bit different. The dimension up to down was skinnier than the old bow eye and the holes in the bow post

The wood that goes at front of the Bow.


So taking a hammer I banged the new Boweye in. It fits snugly but then when I went inside the boat to try to place the backing plate on I found that the legs of the belly were now too far apart to fit the backing plate

I went to the shed and I found a piece of angle iron which I cut into a flat piece of iron the width of the manufacturer's backing plate. Then I drilled a half inch hole in the piece of metal.

First Hole in the Backing Plate
then I took a piece of metal back into the boat climbed into the v berth
 I hung the metal up on one leg of the u-bolt and pressing it against the bottom leg I swung it back and forth so that I had an arc scratched on its surface where the other leg lay.


I took the metal back to my vise. in the shed and drilled the other hole.
The Finished Bow Eye
The first hole in the backing plate
Finished Backing Plate
Finished Backing Plate Installed
I have a working Bow Eye. On Bagatelle again. In the future If I ever get towed again, I will endeavor to find a better attachment point than the bow eye.

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