Boat Hardware: How to Outfit Your Boat With the Best Marine Hardware

Outfitting a boat is about details, and nowhere are those details more evident than in the hardware and chandlery that are used. The fact is, it doesn’t matter if you own a modded tinny, especially for angling or a luxury catamaran exclusively for entertaining, you always want the safest, and highest quality marine-grade vents, latches, and mounting brackets available.

Not all marine hardware is built the same, though. The materials used, and the grade of those materials can vary, and depending on the workmanship, weather, and even temperature, your boat can be left dangerously vulnerable. You have to be sure that you’re outfitted with hardware that’s made for corrosive moisture, broad variations in temperatures, and severe break loads, because the risk of not paying attention to the details can have catastrophic consequences.

Outfitting Your Boat With the Best Hardware and Chandlery

Make no mistake: a material failure, either above or below deck, isn’t something that you want to encounter when you’re on the water; and the best way to ensure that an otherwise easily preventable problem doesn’t occur is by installing only marine-grade boat hardware and chandlery, and by inspecting and maintaining them regularly. Attention goes a long way when it comes to details, and the reasons why you’d want to pay close attention to your hardware couldn’t be clearer.

It’s easy for boat owners to lose track of just how much marine hardware and chandlery they bring aboard their boats, but the list can include a host of plates, supports, and fasteners, such as:

•  Hatch and latch fasteners and adjusters;
•  Deck brackets and mounts;
•  Breather vents;
•  Swivel and eye bolts;
•  Snap hooks and D-rings;
•  Rope grips and clamps; and,
•  Eye bolts, U-bolts, and turnbuckles.

Regardless of whether it’s OE equipment, a custom mod, or one of any number of shackles that you might use, being safe on the water means never taking for granted the quality of the boat chandlery your craft came with, or what you’ve fitted afterwards. Ensuring that the boat is equipped with the best hardware throughout is the key to preventing unexpected failures later, and it all starts with the materials.

Marine-Grade Metals for the Highest-Grade Hardware

When it comes to buying the right marine boat hardware, you don’t have the luxury of choosing to outfit with substandard accessories. A stressed, poorly machined hatch ring that refuses to seal can leave you with incalculable water damage, especially if it’s at the waterline; and a stuck or corroded fuel breather vent can lead to a potentially explosive pressure build-up on a hot day. These accessories have to be strong, and they can’t be prone to rust or corrosion, which means you need more than just ordinary durable metals: you need marine-grade ones.

The highest marine-grade hardware and boat chandlery Australia has to offer comes in 3 forms:

•  Stainless steel. High molybdenum 316-grade is the most commonly used austenitic stainless steel of any kind for marine hardware and fasteners, and is preferred for its strength and corrosion resistance, even when submerged or routinely exposed to salt water.
•  Aluminium. Just like their use in tinny boats suggests, marine-grade aluminium’s lightweight, high tensile strength, and heavy damping properties help to make it an excellent, corrosion-free choice for everything from cleats and bollards, including brackets and deck plates.
•  Brass. No other metal speaks to the tradition of sailing the way marine-grade brass does, and its structural strength, high corrosion resistance, and classic styling are a sight to behold for any type of hook, hinge, or plumbing fitting.

As reliable as they are though, marine hardware isn’t just about non-corrosive metals. Polymers and plastics are as integral to the design of modern hardware for boats as metals are, but the ones you choose have to be suitable for the challenges of marine duty, especially prolonged UV exposure.

Durable Plastics and Polymers That are Built for Boating

Marine-grade plastics provide the ideal combination of light weight, durability, and cost when you buy marine hardware, chandlery, or other accessories. Although plastics lack the overall strength of marine metals, their absolute resistance to corrosion and workability make them excellent for use anywhere on the boat.

You’ll typically find UV-resistant plastic chandlery and marine hardware online that’s constructed from the following materials:

•  ABS. Marine-grade ABS and ABS polymers are among the most rigid plastics you can buy anywhere, and their superior screw retention and easy fibreglass adhesion make them the ideal, non-degradable material for all kinds of topside brackets, mounts, and fittings.
•  Polyethylene. Unlike the ultra-lightweight polyethylene used in ordinary consumer products, marine-grade polyethylene won’t discolour or decay under harsh sunlight or temperatures, and is used for everything from ropes and key floats, to battery boxes and anchor trays.
•  Nylon. More than any other marine-grade plastic, cast nylon boat hardware has the distinction of being resistant to UV degradation, as well as salt water and chemical corrosion; and its inherent self-lubricating quality makes it an excellent material for base plates, breathers, and even vent scoops.

Making the Most Out of Your Boating Hardware

Let’s be honest: when it comes to inspecting and maintaining hardware, boat chandlery requires a significantly tighter regime of attention than either your car or ute. Proper outfitting is only part of the process; ensuring your hardware stays properly outfitted is the key to its reliability, as well as your safety.

The simple steps to getting the longest and most productive lifespan from all your boat hardware include:

•  Ensuring your hardware is adequately sealed to prevent any water or moisture ingress;
•  Checking fittings for any signs of corrosion or UV degradation that could lead to breakage or failure; and,
•  As frequently as possible, rinse your hardware off with fresh water to prevent saltwater corrosion from setting in.

It’s also important to pay close attention to your hardware’s fasteners when inspecting. Corroded fasteners are a point of failure that’s waiting to happen, and you want to get rid of any inferior fasteners as soon as they’re detected, and replace them with marine-grade stainless steel equivalents.

The Final Word

At the end of the day, while convenience and aesthetics are important factors when choosing accessories to outfit your boat, safety is the prime concern. It’s all in the details, which is why the accessories you use must endure the harshness of a marine environment.

Only marine-grade boat hardware and chandlery are built to the standards that you need to stay safe when you’re on the water. The stakes are too high to settle for anything less than the best.