Hello All,

Here is an attempt at foot brace mounting without through-holes. It is based on a low profile idea the Lee mentioned in a previous post on mounting braces as close to the hull as possible (for those with large feet). Although there was plenty of room for us to mount the braces with thicker blocks to hold the t-nuts, we had scrap 4mm Okume and no good scrap for mounting blocks. All of the hardware is stainless steel and the rails (Keepers) are plastic.

The mounts are as long as the Keepers rails and were prepared by drilling a 3/8" hole for each t-nut body, four 1/16" holes for each t-nut's tabs, and a 3/4" counter-sink through one layer of the 3-layer Okume for each t-nut. The front of the mount was sealed and glassed with one layer of 6oz glass (at 0,90) and reinforced around the the t-nuts with two more layers of 6oz glass (at 30,120 and -30,60). Then I redrilled the five holes through the glass. Then I saturated all holes with epoxy, seated the t-nuts in place, and sealed the back of the mount. I plan to mark where they go in the cockpit and then glue them in with thickened epoxy.

So, any comments, suggestions, warnings? Do you think they will be strong enough, etc.?

Thanks,

Tim.