J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Too Many Holes

I was thinking about this problem a little more and it occurs to me that an installation using one of these captured nut types (I'm not sure what the official name of this kind of nut is) would always be challenged. The hole you drill for the nut end is much larger than is needed for the screw end, if you drill only one sized hole. In the case of this rope clutch the screws are 5/16" and the threaded capture nut is 1/2". So when this device is under load on the topside the clutch is going to creep forward until the screw can bear against the top surface skin, and/or the tension in the screw becomes high enough to stop the forward movement of the clutch. The better way would be to drill two different sized holes, one that matches better the screw diameter and one that matches the captured nut. Otherwise over time and loading the loaded device will creep and encourage the sealant to fail.