You can drill holes through the aluminum and allow the epoxy to encapsulated the aluminum completely, and not actually bond the epoxy to the aluminum, but why?

I would be inclined to use wood screws into reinforcement pads (doublers) inside the hull.

> Epoxy will bond to aluminum for a short period of time before
> it weakens and fails. The safe load for the epoxy/aluminum bond is
> 0.

> You can fasten a 1/8"x1" piece of epoxy sealed plywood
> to the foot braces with a #10-32 flat head screw near each end, then
> epoxy the plywood to the hull.

> The proper way to bond to aluminum with epoxy is to alkaline
> de-grease, FPL etch, Phosphoric acid anodize and high temp epoxy prime.
> (Composite Basics, Marshall, pp A 4-7.)