: Hi mick;

: No picture, as you've undoubtedly surmised by now. I liked your idea for the
: sealed underdeck pass-throughs, as there are no visible fasteners of any
: sort, and no projections to catch on flesh . . . The now popular concave
: wooden disk with the transverse wooden or brass rod shares this feature,
: as do the webbing loops.

: I selected the slots & loops because I also wanted to use webbing to hold
: down the hatches, so they could be quickly buckled/unbuckled to gain
: access. Needing a means to attach the webbing for the hatches, I figured
: slots, so consistency ruled. Otherwise I was considering your approach.

: Hey, how is your 'yak coming? If you have a current pic or two, I'd be happy
: to place them on my web site if your FTP site is acting up.

: Best Regards, Spidey

Hi Spidey

Thanks very much for your offer but will try to work something out here - old ftp site gone, new ftp site is passworded, so other links to the dwgs req'd. Grrr. Unfortunately w/ my short yak, I've come up with a whole bunch of unforseen similarly effective ideas for long ones. I've been sidetracked and exploring those. But lots of heat to finish.

The concave cylinder end approach is quite nice. But the metal rod has to be recessed. A U shaped rod could be used, but then a padeye unless really sharp bend can be made. I really like eric's wood cylinder and wood pin, but wouldn't trust it unless I internally drilled the wood pin and put say 1/16stainless cable(500# breaking) thru it and wrapped below. There are also some alternates to this that I drew up and will post when the electronic dust settles.

But I really like(aesthetically not quite so much functionally) the minimalism of a tight webbing loop.

And if you anticipate some problems down the line for refinishing, what about when you make the loop you glue 1/8 in scrap or plastic or some spacer between the loop going into the yak. Then down the line on refinishing, just router or chisel or poke this out and push the loop thru the hole to inside the yak. Cover w/ some water based glue and refinish. Soak the glue, pop back out, and jam the gap. Maybe just a jammed in wedge is all you need from the beginning. Or flex polyurethane glue. Like the webbing is permanently glued.

From my point of view, if there are long loops (1in or longer) some action has to to be taken to respect the insult of the accompanying slot to the hull. Joe's dark epoxy outline does it. A small ellipse of identical wood or smaller of contrasting would also do it.

The alternate is to use a tight(barely larger than the deck line) loop (or 2 side by side tight loops in one fitting for where 2 lines are anticipated). And make from the exact same color as the deck lines. Then the fitting almost disappears, and the insert slot handling is not an issue.

-mick