Well, that was a surprise. I thought I'd be hearing from a couple of other owners who already did the job. Anyway, for the benefit of those that haven't done it yet, it turns out the hull is an inch of soild glass at the bow waterline area. I chose a point about a foot above and there's no sign of coring there either. Used a 1/8" bit for the pilot hole to check the position inside, and it was easily reachable after cutting an 8" square out of the fwd bulkhead dead center and about four inches below the bed/chain locker floor. Just how low to the waterline you want it is a matter of preference Somewhere safely above while still keeping south of the coring would take advantage of the extra strength of the stiffer bow construction. I used a SS 1/2" x 5" bow eye with a 1/8" SS foreplate attached. It took a small bit of work to get it conformed to the bow shape, but it was surprisingly close to begin with. I bought two of these years ago, so the plan is to cut the u-bolt out of the second one and form the remaining foreplate to the same shape and use inside as a backing plate. Finishing up with 5200 on both sides, and adding a small perimeter of 4000 around the edge of the plate should do it.
Project photos to follow.
