Failed Bow-eye on MAC26X

[billadams]

Anyone:
This summer I moored my 1997 MacX on a lake in the Rideau Canal system in a rather sheltered bay which was hit by a series of unusual storms with enough wind to move the boat and the mooring anchor by about 100 feet. We since have set up a 1000lb mooring anchor which I feel now is sufficient for anything except a real twister.

However, to my surprise and horror on boarding the boat in the late summer after these storms and redoing the mooring anchor, I discovered that the chain was held on the bow eye by luck since the eye had broken at some point and was disconnected at one side so the chain was only held in th loop of the lower side of the eye - the upper side having broken off! There was no damage to the fibreglass around the old bow eye. I attached the chain to the eye directly.

I will attache a photo of the failed bow eye when I figure how to insert it.

Has anyhone ever had a bow eye failure?

It was not too hard to repair since at the time I had already removed the foam in the bow area since I was installing an anchor roller. I did put all the foam back in after the repairs and mods!

I put in the same size bow eye that broke i.e. 5/16 " stainless with backing plates in both inside and outside with bedding compound to set it all in place.

Any comments from other MAC owners?

Bill

[Craig LaForce]

I remember reading about one that broke (also while on a mooring), on lake Erie. I think it was the small boat harbor at Buffalo.

THe bow eye looks too flimsey to me to use as long term mooring attachment.

I tried anchoring that way a few times and noticed the boat rides much better , but I really got nervous about it breaking. Since the boat likes to sheer back and forth a lot, the bow eye would get a lot of sideways stresses, which it doesn't look thick enough to handle.

Heck, I even sheered off a steering bolt last month, and it was thicker than the bow eye and less stressed I would think.

[Lorne Colish]

I think I would put something stretchy between the boweye and the chain to absorb some of the shock. If I recall correctly,the boat I chartered in the BVI had a short section of thick nylon braid which was hooked onto the uppermost 6ft. of chain which took some of the pull just ahead of the boweye.

[Gerald Gordon]

I replaced mine with 1/2 " several years ago. I also mounted a SS backing plate on the inside. No problem. I use the eye to anchor. I'm surprised to hear that there was no damage to the fiberglass. I wonder if the factory put nuts on the bolt?

[billadams]

Gerald

Yes, there were nuts on the bolt when I removed the broken bow eye.

Bill

[billadams]

Lorne

I did have a rubber snubber mounted on the upper section of chain to absorb shocks as the boat moved.

Bill

[Moe]

The little 26X bow eye used to worry me when having to use the winch a lot when loading. The eye on our 15' Whaler is 1/2" (with a lifting eye on the inside) but on the heavier Capri 18 is only 3/8." But I don't think I'd anchor or moor any small boat with all chain, without a good length of stretchy snubber line with a chain claw on the end. The line gives needed shock absorption and the claw pulls on the rounded part of the link above, rather than across a link like a chain hook would.

--
Moe

[marsanden]

A good mooring is done with chain and line, with the line on the bow eye.
But all the mooring system on any Mac ( rubber or stain steel ) is too small for a good mooring in eawy conditions.

[mtc]

There should always be some shock-abaorbing device on an anchor line - even if it's a length tied to the anchor rode at a part of the span so the rode is still all chain, but the shock line will stop that constant jarring.

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

Most likely the snubber got stretched so far that the chain went tight. This would then put very high shock loads on the bow eye. It is better to have a length of 3 strand twisted line for the final connection. Even when pulled tight it will always continue to stretch and absord shocks.

If I was leaving my boat on a mooring I would never depend on a single connection. In addition to the primary connection to the bow eye, I would run a second line from a bow cleat through the mooring and back to the other bow cleat. Leave this line long enough that it is still slack when the primary connection is tight. That way if the primary fails your boat will fall back to the secondary connection.

[Greg]

When we were looking at used boats, I looked at a Mac that had been moored in a cove on the Chesapeake Bay for over a year and had not been boarded during that time.
She had gone though a cold winter and nasty summer storms that included Hurricane Isabel (large storm surge in the area). The mooring line was 5/8 braided line and was tied to the bow eye. There was no visible sign damage to the eye bolt or stress to the fiberglass.

As a side note:
The Mac was moored about 100 yards offshore and the owner had no means of access to her. I took my canoe and the owner and I paddled out to the boat where he boarded her. After untying the mooring line, I tied the painter of my canoe off to the bow eye and proceeded to solo paddle the Mac back to the dock. Somewhere I have a video that my wife took from the dock of the tow. It looks pretty funny in fast forward.

[mtc]

If I was leaving my boat on a mooring I would never depend on a single connection.

Excellent point, Duane. I learned that the hard way. Luck would have it that I was in a very small bayou, mud bottom, and the homeowner who had my 23' Columbia in their yard (a bit windy) had my phone number.

Who'd a thunk it?

[R Rae]

One problem I encountered while mooring on a 600 lb concrete anchor was that 10 ft. of 3/8 chain going to a mooring ball and from that an 8 ft pennant attached to the boat to be insufficient.
This wasn't too bad with a 3 ft low tide, but when wind and waves picked up at a 7 ft high tide all of a sudden my reduced scope became extreme and I almost lost the boat.

In relaying this tale to an old 'tar' he chided me for not having at least 15-20 heavy chain plus a similar length of line....The extra chain sure works like a super shock absorber.

This year I made the necessary alterations with a dramatic improvement in the boats stability, and after mooring there for 3 mths this past summer I do believe I could reduce my 1/2" three strand down to 3/8" with confidence. (I probably won't though !).

I should add that in a previous post of mine titled 'Anchor Angels' I mention discovering that a 25-35 lb weight hanging from the bow eye and dragging on the bottom really helped to minimise the swinging back and forth.