Is the Plumbing and Wiring on my Boat Going to Stay Put?
Weld Mount supports do a good job of securing wiring on the hull structure, and are a better option than drilling into a cored laminate.
October 3, 2014
Question: I’m the proud owner of a new boat, but it has me a bit worried about the method the builder used to secure a lot of the plumbing and wiring harnesses to the hull and structure.
Weld Mount adhesively bonded fastening points do well at holding wiring and plumbing lines in place.
Everything is tied into the boat using these black plastic mounts, and then held in place with tie-wraps that are run through the plastic plates. I can’t see any screws securing the plates to the hull or structure. They appear to be glued in place. Is this going to be a disaster in five or ten years when the glue starts to fail?
Answer: My answer is that it depends upon which system the builder used. Certainly some of the early methods used to accomplish this, which essentially used double-sided sticky-back tape as the adhesive, haven’t performed very well. I think that most boat builders have learned, however, that this is potentially a real problem and a quality-control issue they need to pay close attention to.
The securing points in your photo appear to be the same as some that I’m quite familiar with, marketed as “Weld Mount.” The Weld Mount system uses acrylic glue, which is available in several formulations, depending upon the specific application. In my opinion this product will last indefinitely. I’ve tested several installations using this product and it certainly seems strong to me.
The manufacturer does state that adhesion to Starboard® (a high-density polyethylene used by many builders for various things like backboards and backing plates under winches) isn’t very good, so that advice should be followed. Any that I’ve tested that were glued to wood or fiberglass laminates seemed like they could never come apart. My sense is that this is a better approach than drilling into a (probably) cored fiberglass laminate and creating a point for water ingress into the laminate if the screw is not properly sealed.
