Avoid drilling holes in your boat

Once I settled on a Tayana 37 pilothouse boat as my choice to allow me to tick off the primary item on my bucket list (circumnavigation), I set out to find a suitable used boat.

- John Lewis

John Lewis calls his nav station “Dual Lock central,” after using it to attach so many items, such as the holster for the autopilot remote and two small digital clocks.

At the time, I was not able to find any boats on the market that did not have teak decks, and by the time I factored in the cost of removing a teak deck from a used boat, I was right up against the cost of a new boat. So, for the first time in my life, I bought a brand-new boat.

This brought with it emotional issues that I had not planned on. All my previous boats had come to me with a few scars that reflected on the modifications of the previous owner(s), as well as those of a few docking indiscretions.

So, I did not feel like I would be doing much damage when I drilled the holes I needed to install new gear.

But my Tayana 37, Active Transport, was delivered in pristine condition, and I had a real problem picking up my drill and making holes.

That’s when I started trying to find ways to install things belowdecks that did not require drilling holes. I’ll discuss a few examples to illustrate the major categories of solutions I have come up with and leave it to you to figure out the details for your boat. I have also used one of these solutions above deck, though never for mission-critical gear. Every-thing that takes any kind of load is always through-bolted.