Cabin-top padeyes

FC Forum
1

Is anyone out there familiar with how the cabin-top pad eyes are installed? I am thinking of installing short pieces of T-track, forward of the dorade box mounting, for an new staysail, but it would be best to run it as far aft as possible, which would mean that I should remove the forward padeyes.

When I looked inside the cabin, most of the cabin-top hardware is mounted through the fiberglass headliner (e.g, the handrails and the staysail winches), but there is no visible hardware inside the cabin for the four padeyes. The headliner looks VERY difficult to remove, and I do not want to try to remove any of the padeye bolts before knowing what they thread into.

I was thinking that the four padeyes might have been used for lifting the deck assembly into place on the hull, then repurposed as a mounting provision for the staysail lead blocks. They look hefty enough for that purpose, so I looked for that video of the assembly of the FC22 (used to be at this URL: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7927720783596527868&hl=en). Unfortunately, this video is no longer available. Does anyone know anything about how these padeyes are mounted on the cabin top?

Thanks for entertaining this question. For whatever reason, I usually do not get a notification from the forum of a reply. You are most welcome to email me directly at tfrenock@isomedia.com.

2

Hi Tom,

I know that some of the FCs had the pad eyes for the staysail blocks simply screwed into the cabin top. The fiberglass there is about 1/4 inch thick so the theory was that screws would be sufficient.

You could change that by drilling completely through the “liner” from outside and then drilling up to the fiberglass with a flat tipped bit from the inside using a drill bit big enough to allow a washer and nut and socket to fit.

ron walton
Retired Editor of the FC News

3

Thanks for the reply, Ron, and sorry about taking so long to get back to you.

These pad eyes were in fact simply screwed into the plywood core material with wood screws. I removed one set for the track installation, and I reinstalled the other pair to fill in the holes. I guess that I am surprised that this is all that the staysail block was fastened to the cabin, but there is not much force from that small sail.