U-bolts vs pad-eyes for cockpit tether points?
 

I need some tether clip-on points in my cockpit. But Wichard forged padeyes cost a lot, and cheap Chinese copies aren't reliable. So, I wonder about using u-bolts that have the same or higher load rating as conventional pad-eyes.
The u-bolts come with 4 nuts and 2 oblong trim plates. This means you sandwich the deck, plus an additional, larger backing plate, between the 2 trim plates and tighten each pair of nuts against each other. It seems to me that such a union has to be comparable in strength to a one-piece pad eye.
To limit risk of accidentlly opening an older tether carabiner, you could use a welded ring inside the u-bolt.
I'm interested in your collective wisdom on this, as it seems to offer a much less expensive solution than forged pad-eyes.
John V.

overkill
 

If it's only an attachment point for a tether, any chinese padeye will do. Any force that can break even a bronze eyestrap with two #10 bolts will first have dismembered you within your harness. There are so many naturally occurring attachment points everywhere on most boats that adding something extra just makes more clutter. Find a handy place to put a loop of line that you can easily clip your tether shackle to and you'll be fine. You can put loops anyplace you think you'll want to clip in.
Ben

Your response is unorthodox, benz, but makes sense. You should see the comments in the Sailnet list on the same topic. As Stumble observed on another post, people--myself included, I guess--read in a book somewhere that there's a way to do something, and it becomes the only way.
I have an aversion to cheap Chinese gear, but if I want to hook on where there's no convenient deck hardware, you've given support to my u-bolt plan.
Thanks for your reply.
John V.

Hi John,
Happy to help. I worried after posting that you might misconstrue, and I'm glad you didn't. I think the U-bolt is perfectly sufficient.
Be safe!
Ben