I am looking to refresh the standing rigging on my 1999 Nacra 450 and have encountered something I think is a little strange. The bridle wires end in a thimble which is attached to the bows by a pad eye which is screwed into the hull. Most of the information I've been able to find for Nacra bridles show them terminating in a fork which is pinned to a tang fiberglassed into the bow. The bridles have clearly been replaced prior to my purchase of the boat ~5 years ago (and much more recently than the rest of the rigging) and I am wondering if this is a modification someone made to the boat when replacing the bridles or if this is how it came from the factory. I love the boat but information/parts are extremely hard to come by even by older Nacra standards.
If it came this way from the factory (and there is no obvious sign of fiberglass work to cut out a tang and replace it with these pad eyes), what are these screws attached to and can I simply unscrew, hook on new bridles and screw it back in with a sealer of some kind?
The bridles are in pretty good condition and I don't want to unscrew these pad eyes and discover that significant boat surgery is required to put them back for a replacement that really isn't necessary at this time.
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