The yankee engineer in me tends to think that load distributed around the boom via strap would spread force over a larger surface area than the bolt, which has limited contact when compared to a strap. Thanks for the idea Bob, I'll be headed over to east coast REI (EMS) to see what they have for webbing. I'm thinking that I can pass a small loop through the old bolt hole and around the webbing to keep it placed where it is supposed to be. Mostly, I just think the strap looks cool, modern maxi-boat racy.
