Towing eye/stem band issues

[Graham W]

My stainless stem band seemed to be leaking a bit and I also suspected that my towing eye might be coming loose, although I couldn't budge it.  If the eye was coming loose, this wouldn't be a problem when trailering because I use two ratchet straps to secure the boat to the trailer.  However, it could potentially be disastrous if the eye came undone when winching the boat on and off the trailer.

So I stuck my iPhone on a selfie stick (I knew that it would eventually be useful for something) and took the attached photos by poking the apparatus through the inspection hatch under the foredeck and into the forward buoyancy chamber.

My interpretation of the first photo is that someone has tried to fix the stem band leak (and/or maybe better secure the stem band screws) by covering the area with sealant or epoxy (the bit that looks like swirling mayonnaise) and hoping for the best.  In the second photo, you can see what looks like a stain caused by a leak of blackish water from below the mayonnaise.  Indeed the forward buoyancy chamber contained quite a lot of dark water which I have now emptied.  I didn't fancy tasting it to see whether it was salt or fresh.

The main subject of the second photo (below the stain) is the back of the towing eye.  From the discolouration, it looks like it might be the original 14-year old installation, covered in some sort of sealant.  This partially obscures what I hope are the original backing plate and two nuts securely holding the back of the eye to the stem.  Has anyone else burrowed into the innards of their bow and found something similar?  Does anyone disagree with my interpretation of the photos?

There was a 1mm+ gap between the stem band above the towing eye and the hull.  This ran upwards for about 15cm and I have filled it in with Sikaflex which I hope will definitively stop the leak.  Otherwise, I've been told that the only way to sort out this inaccessible part of the boat, given that there is a 1 metre gap between the inspection hatch and the stem, is to cut a great big access hole in the side of the hull.  This would allow the mayonnaise to be chipped away and the stem band to be properly secured with nuts, bolts and penny washers.  It would also allow proper inspection of the back of the towing eye, after clearing away the discoloured sealant.  The access hole would then be repaired with a suitable epoxy/GRP plug affixed to the inside of the hull and once properly faired in, it would be re-gelcoated over.  That all seems a bit drastic and I'm hoping that it won't be necessary.

[garethrow]

Regret I am devoid of useful suggestions Graham. If you can't budge the towing eye - why do you think it is loose? Have you got the equivalent of an 'ear worm' on the mind?? with visions of catastrophic launching disasters?
Cutting a large access hole sounds like the solution that the yard would resort to. On an epoxy ply hull it would be a doable job but I would not like to tackle it on a GRP hull. Could you go in from the deck with a circular hole and replace with a large screw hatch?

Regards

Gareth Rowlands
GRP BR20 Halen Y Mor

[Graham W]

Thanks Gareth.

Two things made me worry about the U bolt/towing eye:
The stainless stem band immediately above it had pulled away from the hull, albeit not by very much, suggesting that there was a bit of shifting/stress going on there.  I could see 1mm+ of daylight through the gap.
And secondly it's difficult to verify that the back of the U bolt inside the hull is secure because the relevant parts are smothered in sealant.  When I first looked at it from a distance with a torch, it appeared to have no nuts securing it, which would have been, er, unhelpful.  After photographing it from a closer distance,  I'm still not sure what's there.  The clumsy application of mayonnaise didn't fill me with confidence in previous workmanship either. 

When I went on my boat repair course, I was shown that the drastic cutting of oval-shaped holes in hulls is not really drastic at all.  They do it all the time when repairing damage caused by T-boning etc.  A new over-large oval plug is inserted through the oval hole and then glued from the inside.  Once the resulting crater is filled and faired in and gelcoated over, the mend is pretty much invisible and probably stronger than the rest of the hull.  As for my gelcoat in that area, it's a mess, so nothing lost in making it even worse. 

Thanks for the foredeck suggestion but my experience of inspection hatches is that they leak like sieves soon after installation.....