At some point, the bow handle and the boat parted ways and the boat would never hear from the bow handle again. I questioned the boat in an attempt to locate the handle, but she keeps her lips sealed.
It must have been one of those really bad breakups. The kind where restraining orders are issued. They haven't remained friends or have even obsessively stalked each other. No phone calls or letters have been exchanged to my knowledge.
So, I had to introduce a new bow handle and they've hit it off pretty good. There's word circulating about them wanting to go to the lake together.
We'll need a little bit of help from a match maker to keep things going well.
Here is Ursula, the town match maker:
She's been entrusted with getting these two to meet and on good terms. With a steely resolve {snort}, she is committed to ensuring these two have a good strong relationship for many years to come.
The front is tapered because the bow is tapered.
Once it's inside the hull, it'll be impossible to photograph, so here is a picture of approximately where it will sit:
It will sandwich the original wooden block between it and the handle. I haven't permanently mounted the front inspection port so that I have as much room as possible.
With MarineTex, I filled the holes and allowed it to cure. Then I sanded down what I didn't want and had a hull ready to drill. This stuff is pretty easy to sand. Unless you've got a big area, just go by hand with a sanding block or else you'll take off more than you want.
After things were sanded to my liking, I marked the holes and drilled:
Then I prayed I did things right and tested to see if the holes lined up. Success!
While these two got acquainted, I prepared the marine silicone to seal things up. They seem to be getting along well and both brightened up a bit. It looks to be a perfect match as they look really great together...
And no, the hull is not wet {wink}
Alright, now for the tricky part. I pulled a magic trick and managed to hold the plate in place, put some washers over the screws and thread some nuts all with one hand.
Needless to say, I'm glad I have a 5" port instead of the 4".
The original block is still soundly secure to the hull so I didn't want to take it off. But I didn't want to use it to secure the handle either.
After my magic trick, before I tightened things up, I attempted to get a picture of it. Here's the best I could do:
I hope you can see the plate.
After this, I left enough room to be able to pick up the handle enough to get sealant under it and around the holes. I also dabbed some sealant around the heads of the screws and tightened things down. I finished the inspection port and voila, a bow handle!
Up next, the completed boat!
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