maroske fittings are strong...and in a lot of ways stronger than regular fittings.

one way to look at it is to compare it to a standard CLC loop of webbing through bolted to the hull.  the weak link typically deck in this system and the chance of tearing the screw/bolt out of the deck.  this can be addressed by backing it with a washer to distribute the force over a wider surface area making it practically 'strong as you will ever need it'.

in a maroske fitting, you have two holes and you loop the rigging through it.  the inside hull side of the loop has a tube to prevent water from leaking into the hull.  but as a practical matter,  with respect to strength, a maroske fitting distributes the load over a relatively wide area....comparable easily to a washer backed through-bolt.

that said, maroske fittings, while they are really slick, have the potential for the back-side tube to fail and allow water into the boat (rare but not unheard of).  are also fairly labor intensive to build compared to a through bolt, and they also need to be pre-planned and installed (in most cases) prior to joining the hull/deck together.  they are very difficult to add or move around after the fact.

so i would not worry about strength...and focus on looks/build complexity/ability to change things once you are done.   maroske fittings are plenty strong.

h

I dislike cloth loops for deck rigging on a boat that sees any real use. I used that method on a smaller boat I built for surfing, and in rescue situtaions where another paddler uses my boat to re-enter theirs, I worry about failure at the wrong moment. The strain put on the system in these situations can be quite high.

Good points about placement. I'm not overly concerned about time, and once I have the method down think things it will move along. But I will have to think carefully about where and how I want rigging mounted. Ive altered the rigging on other boats long after they were built, requiring the isntallation of additional hardware. This will be particularly important since, as you point out, placing these fittings after the deck and hull have been joined would be a challenge.

���I recently built a Chesapeake 18 with Maroske fittings. In my opinion, they are stronger than the majority of fittings I've seen. Any fitting with a mechanical fastener will have a much lower resitance to the point loads that are typical for kayak rigging. The pre planning is a little stressful, the actual prep work and construction time is increased, but well worth the finished product!

���I recently built a Chesapeake 18 with Maroske fittings. In my opinion, they are stronger than the majority of fittings I've seen. Any fitting with a mechanical fastener will have a much lower resitance to the point loads that are typical for kayak rigging. The pre planning is a little stressful, the actual prep work and construction time is increased, but well worth the finished product!