The gunnel is plenty thick enough. Rod holders are thru bolted with big washers or a backing plate. I think the OP is asking about the connection of the 2 piece gunnel to the hull.
On my 265 it was epoxied and screwed (minimal screws) and then caulked with something like 4200 ( I say 4200 because it had grey spots from aging and 4200 does that).
I had one side off due to an "incident" involving a crazy current, a dock piling and a protruding rodholder mounted cutting board.
Cutting board hit the piling and the gunnel popped 1/4", halfway pulling screws. The rodholder held up fine. The protruding cutting board saved my hull from a disaster...just dumb luck...
That was a 100 times more pressure than a 130 with drag.
I re-epoxied and added a few more screws.
I have Gemlux Heavy Duty 0deg swivels in my gunnels