Attaching A Dodger Frame

[flit]

Originally Posted by siamese

....Seems like most of the forces would be from the side or downward. In either case, the fasteners would be acting more as pins than screws.

note: I'm pretty sure the previous owner of my boat would have just used nails.

Maybe so.. But we were offshore between Tonga and New Zealand in 27 foot seas going to weather in 40 knot winds gusting much higher.
We had solid blue water rushing up the foredeck and then being forced up and over the top of the dodger, connector and Bimini (still some solid water but also allot of foamy stuff at this point). In my opinion only...The forces were certainly attempting to pull the front of the dodger up and backwards with lifting forces out of the deck.
We'd reattached our dodger before this passage with longer screws in our cedar core and since this passage have converted those to Thru Bolted fasteners at the front of the dodger frame feet.