I acquired a set of hiking straps a couple of years ago, and am now considering installing them in my DS2. There are 3 padded straps, each about 3 feet long with a grommet at each end; one strap for each side of the centerboard trunk, and one to go aft from the centerboard trunk to the stern.
I’m wondering how to best attach them with minimal alteration of the boat. At the stern I attached an eye strap to the ends of two of the rudder grudge in bolts. At the fore end of the cockpit, I’ll try running a line out of the cuddly through the cuddly drain holes. What I am unsure about is what to attach to in the middle of the cockpit, just aft of the trunk. I’m thinking of installing a D-ring on the floor, probably with a rivet because there isn’t a way to get to the underside of the cockpit floor short of installing an inspection port there, and I’d like to avoid that.
Does any one here have hiking straps in their DS2 or DS3? How are they attached? Are the cuddy drain holes too high off the floor? Is the floor too thick just aft of the trunk to put a rivet through?