Drilling gunwales for flush mount rod holders?

[redfishsc]

I recently bought a very well preserved 1987 Glasstream 15ft bass boat, fiberglass, 70hp Evinrude.

Hull is in excellent shape. We do a lot of catfishing in addition to bass and inshore saltwater (followed by freshwater lake dunk/flush) .

Main question. I'd like to add 6-8 rod holders to the boat for catfishing. I prefer the flush mount rod holders that require drilling a 2-3"hole in the fiberglass.

The gunwales are plenty wide enough. But if I drill 3-4 of these big holes on each side for the rod holders (midway and near the front) will I weaken the hull?

 

[alldodge]

Drilling 3 to 4 holes on each side will take some structure out, just unable to say what effect. Might depend on how thick the top is. A boat takes a lot of vibration and if it stays sound, there could be some cracks form around the new holes

 

[dingbat]

Depends on how the boat is constructed.

I have 3 holders plus an outrigger mount on each gunnel. Backed up with “plywood” and aluminum sandwich.

Fishes #50 offshore tackle with no problem

 

[redfishsc]

Ok, thanks for the input guys.

I have plenty of 1/2" starboard available to me, we use it at work, I can probably make a nice reinforcement with that. We have offcuts that would be big enough.

I've considered only doing 2 rod holders per side which will suffice for most trips, and I could make a larger removable rod holder for 5-8 drifting rods. The removable rod holder could have legs that drop into the gunwale mount rod holders to keep it steady.

 

[jhande]

I have an old Glastron fiberglass which has some things mounted to the gunwales. Some are lose and there are a few empty screw holes. I can reach under most of the gunwhales so I'm planning on backing them with extra support. I wouldn't trust too much material being taken away from the structure with out extra support.