Life Raft Install

[El Guapo]

I have a 1989 38 foot Hatteras Convertible/Sportfish. I recently purchased a 6 man liferaft in a hard case cannister. I want to mount it on the bow and would like some information as to how to screw/bolt the mounting bracket without having to take down the headliner in the master suite. Is the fiberglass thick enough to screw the 12 bracktet screws into it? Any help would be appreciated.

[SKYCHENEY]

The deck is thick as it is cored. You can probably get by with just screws, but you would still need to seal up the coring on any deck penetration. This requires overdrilling the holes and digging out some coring, then filling with epoxy and redrilling to proper size. As long as you're going that far, you might think about epoxying some bolts and backers right into the deck. Those would never pull out.

[sandspur1966]

I find an easy way to evenly remove the coring is to put an L shaped allen wrench into the chuck of a drill and insert it into a 3/4 hole in the top fiberglass layer. Then I use a shop vac to remove the core shavings. clean it by pouring a little denatured alchohol into the expanded void and vaccuum again before pouring in the west epoxy mixture.

I think I first heard this technique in passagemaker from Steve D and it a a very need and fast way to git-er-done.

[Vincentc]

You might want to consider epoxying nuts rather than bolts. If you remove the raft frame you will have bolts sticking up out of your deck which will present a hazard. I have inserted waxed bolts with nuts on the ends into the cavities holding the filled epoxy. Once the epoxy sets up, you can unscrew the bolt, set the item to be secured in place and bolt it down.

You will need to have a template in order to accurately position the waxed bolts with nuts. Also, I use chopped strand in addtion to colloidal silica as a filler for extra strength.
Regards,
Vincent
Lilly Marie 43 DC

[SKYCHENEY]

The problem with just nuts is that you have no backer holding them in, just the epoxy. If you embed the bolts, you can put a small plate or washer on them than can extend past the edges of your original hole so that the load is taken by the fiberglass deck skin as well as the new epoxy.

[Maynard Rupp]

As a person who inspected liferafts for 30 years I can tell you the simple answer. If you have a hydrostatic release go ahead and mount it on the foredeck if you must. If you have conventional mounting straps you would have to get to that raft to deploy it. I recommend that you keep it at the highest level available. This would usually mean the flybridge. Your raft won't last long on nthe foredeck either. Between the heat, sun, and salt water, most of those foredeck mounted rafts can't pass an inspection 3 years later. If yours is a vacuum packed unit, then it will hold up a bit better. I say put it on the flybridge where you can get to it and will have a little more time in cas of a sinking. Also try to keep it out of the sun. I have a 4 man raft in a soft pack in one of the forward storage areas on our flybridge.