Backstay Eyebolt Repair

Well, it's been said that owning a boat is process of constant maintenance, and Ellipsis certainly demonstrates that fact. Following our successful stem fitting repair and wonderful sail on the South Puget Sound, Liz and I discovered that the backstay eyebolt/chainplate had pulled up from the deck about 1/8". Clearly, this must be fixed! This post establishes what the problem is and what we have to work with. In a later post, I will chronicle how we repair it.






This is the eyebolt/chainplate as we found it, pulling up out of the transom.


Note the cracks in the surface of the decking.


The eyebolt was easily unscrewed by putting a nail through the hole for extra torque. Upon removal, I noted some damage to the threads (visible in this photo) and I measured it. It is a 1/2" bolt. Older Catalina 22's had 3/8" bolts, but ours either had this one stock, or it was upgraded by a previous owner.

The hole in the transom does not go all the way through to the open space below. Thus, the eyebolt was not secured with a washer and nut.


In this closeup view, you can see that there are metal threads embedded in the transom. I've read that C22's often have a bronze bar along the top of the transom, but this metal appears more silvery or steel colored to my untrained eye. Not easily seen in this photo is a much thinner layer of threaded yellow (bronze?) colored metal above the steel threads. Could someone have glassed or epoxied in a nut below the bronze bar? The area is not accessible from below decks, so I cannot inspect from below. Even so, the hole doesn't go all the way through, so I doubt I'd see anything useful in any case.

Liz and I are considering our options for this repair, and I will post our solution when we decide what to do.