mounting unitroll 10

[Hi Town Kid]

I have a Monark 19 King and mounted a unitroll 10 about 4' from sterm with a piece of 3/4" oak 61/4"x12" as a backer below aluminum. I feel there is still too much deflection in the aluminum. any ideas???

Thanks

[Steve Foss]

I ran into the same issue when mounting my first set of riggers on my Alumacraft Competitor. I used 2x4 but wasn't happy with the continued deflection. The problem is that, no matter how much wood you add, the hull itself still flexes from the rocking/weight of the rigger. The longer the rigger boom, the more bouncing you get.

I needed a way to add rigidity to the aluminum hull itself, and chose to fasten the top more securely to the hull. So I was able to use 90 degree steel supports running from the underside of the wood/aluminum and down the inside aluminum of the hull. I had to drill holes for the stainless bolts, so I do have the stainless bolt heads/washers protruding from the outside of the hull. I'm not a big fan of doing that to my hull, but they are perfectly sealed and you have to actually be looking for them to see them.

There is now virtually no deflection, even with 12 lb downrigger balls on bouncy seas.

I used polyurethane glue to glue the 2x underneath, to add holding power for the base screws beyond the thin aluminum and the plywood under it. I ended up only putting two holes in the hull instead of the four allowed by the two brackets because those two did the job.