On paper the dowels are a great idea. In practice I think it may be
problematic. The screws originally went through the plywood core under the
fiberglass, the grain of the wood is oriented at right angles to the screw
threads giving them good holding power. Putting the screws into the end of
a dowel puts the threads along the grain and reduces the holding power by
at least half. If you use the dowels, then definitely use longer screws to
make up some of the lost holding power

I'm not an engineer, but in my business we build a lot of bridges and
boardwalks. I've learned (through failure) that anytime we are screwing
into the end of a board, we have to use much longer screws to ensure
floodwater forces won't tear the end caps off.
My .02

Michael Riter
SV Emma B

On Tue, Jul 28, 2020 at 9:50 AM Chris on LBI <cknell at vt.edu> wrote:

> Thank you Graham for those additional suggestions. In doing some further
> reading I saw that someone (I think Stan) mentioned putting wood slivers
> into the holes along with the epoxy; I presume the reason would be to
> weaken
> the epoxy so that it would release the screw should the need arise again.
> This leads me to wonder about the possibility of gluing 3/8 inch  or 1/2
> inch dowels into the holes (rather than filling them with epoxy) – large
> enough to receive the 1/4 inch machine screw and weak enough to tear out to
> avoid damaging the surrounding gelcoat. What would experience of this forum
> say to this suggestion?
>
>
>
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> Long Beach Island
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>