After loosing my rudder downhaul line on an oyster bed in Port Townsend, I came up with the great idea to epoxy the line in place (in the rudder) for a bomb proof attachment. Problem was, the epoxy oozed out and stiffened the line where it exited the top of the rudder. This caused the line to rub in the rudder head assembly, preventing smooth raising and lowering of the rudder.
So, I did what I probably should have done all along.
I drilled the hole bigger than what the plans called for and secured the line with a figure 8 knot. My first attempt left very little wood to support the line, so I filled with thickened epoxy and tried again.
This smaller hole was drilled horizontally until it met the bigger hole. This preserved more wood/epoxy for the line to pull against.
The knot lies flush with the rudder for smooth movement of the rudder.
This approach is far superior to my last approach (epoxied in place) in that the line is now replaceable and fully serviceable in the field.