I brought our new C-dory home yesterday and noticed the bow eye is bent to one side. I am totally baffled... I know I haven't hit anything! The only thing I can think of is I haven't gotten the boat snug to the roller on the trailer winch post because the bow pulls away when the stern settles onto the trailer. If the stem is six inches back from the roller on the winch post, could the boat bounce hard enough on the highway to bend the bow eye? Or did I just not notice the bent eye when I bought the boat? If the stem has to be snug against against the winch post, I'm thinking don't put the trailer as far down the ramp and winch the boat up rather than float it. Then the stern won't settle as far. We have a steep launch ramp because the tidal range is 25-30 feet.
Bent bow eye?
- Thread starter mutski
- Start date
mutski":26lnscbk said:
Depends on how far it is bent. However, the force required to bend the bow eye to the side via the winch strap would probably require a fairly high deflection of the boat from the normal trailering position. It would require a pretty big bounce and the boat landing at a decent angle to the trailer. FWIW, pull my boat up until the bow eye is right at the winch post roller and I use a strap from the bow eye vertically down to the trailer frame that eliminates the bow bouncing when trailering. My trailer has a welded ring on the frame at the base of the winch post for this purpose.
I would guess that someone ran your boat into something. It is possible that the eye was bent if the boat was pulled hard via the eye from the side. I bent one of my stern eyes a bit when towing a tube that whipped hard to one side.
T.R. Bauer
New member
I don't think anyone will know the answer for sure, but the bow does need to be snug to the winch post roller. I launch in Homer all the time and winch the boat up the last 3 or so feet tight to the winch post roller. Our roads are terrible....I strap down the bow and the stern as the boats can move around a lot. And a moving around boat becomes a dynamic load that is supposed to be static - things will break with the boat not properly secured and could even be dangerous. As a side note, I'm the guy really slowing down on the stupid frost heaves. Anyway....just what I do 
mutski":3elyqg3x said:
Couple of things.
Based on the amount of bending (mostly the sharpness) and bending back, you may have weakened the bow eye a bit (although SS does work harden, this can lead to brittleness).
Based on the pictures, it looks like you may not be pulling the boat up far enough. IME, the bow eye should be up to the winch post roller. This helps with the bouncing.
