sandalwood20

Before deciding on the bonding route, I was also sold on the concept of ss rivnuts, but like you, was unable to find a source for a small quantity. It occurred to me that they are primarily used in aviation, so I contacted an aviation mechanic I know at the small local airport. He can get them, but talked me out of it. According to him, in aluminum, it's very common for the rivnuts to lose their grip, and spin when removing the machine screws. In his experience, it's not unusual for it to happen on the first attempted extraction. If you still want to use them, try a small, local aviation source.

That's exactly what mine look like.

Nope, one piece of wood curved vertically, with a horizontal hole bored in it, sharp edges eased, then coated with epoxy/aluminum powder.

After consulting with the Gougeon brothers, I fabricated a padeye from Honduras mahogany, and glued (bonded) it to the aluminum mast with G-flex epoxy. The aluminum was prepped first with the West System etch kit. According to the tech rep at Gougeon, they do this routinely for mast hardware on boats much larger than my CS17. The tensile adhesion numbers for G-flex are impressive. If removal is required later, a grinder makes short work of it.