CONTINUOUSWAVE

I'm putting steering pulleys in an old Whaler and was looking at how they pulleys at the transom were anchored.

My pulleys have the typical "U" shaped stainless mounts with holes for 2 #10 screws in them.

Most photos I can find show these mounted on the transom or in the corner of the transom where it meets the side, but I'm not sure I think that just drilling a couple of holes and putting wood screws into the fiberglass is a safe way of mounting these.

How was it done by the factory on older boats?

My thought is that the best way is to mount them on the transom and drill a larger hole (like 3/8") in the inside, but not through the entire transom, just enough to clean out the foam to the back side. Then fill the hole with thickened epoxy and then put a bolt through the whole thing with good size washers on both sides.

everything was through bolted. the pulleys where held by small 'eye straps' that were through bolted. (long skinny stainless steel bolts) at
least this was how my '76 was delivered from the factory.

Thanks, I see photos of earlier 13 footers that don't seem to have any thru bolts, so maybe it was earlier boats that just had screws in them...

Looking back at the old Boston Whaler brochures, even the original 1958 version, all the 13 Sports with steering had stern corner steering pulleys that were through bolted. Pretty important for safety.

Some details of the wire rope and pulley steering are visible at

http://continuouswave.com/whaler/cetace ... age82.html