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The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.
Due to the placement of the dockside mooring cleats it's been necessary to use a springline to keep the boat from nosing into the dock. I'd like to get away from using a springline by mounting cleats above the cockpit pockets. One day I'll install winches above the pockets, too.
I've noticed a few 250's and 25's with cleats in this location that have been mounted on an angle. I was planning on installing the cleats without an angle but straight off port and starboard much like the factory installed cleats.
Before I take to drilling 8 holes in the boat I'd appreciate some advice. Thanks.
Bob Watson Sparkle Plenty '99 Catalina 250/WK #421 Oak Bottom Marina Whiskeytown Lake CA
The cleat angles you see on C-25s is based on their use with the winches by somebody in the area of the helm. For spring-lines (on our C-25), I added a movable midship cleat on each genoa track--similar to this:
Both are available at other places like WestMarine.
These give excellent support for the fore-aft motion that a spring line or breast line restricts. There is considerable debate about whether transverse forces (perpendicular to the sail track) would rip the track off the roof if you tried to use this to secure the boat against a side bulkhead. That same question would apply for any cleat mounted with a fore-aft orientation.
Here's the link to [url="http://garhauermarine.com/catalog_process.cfm?cid=78"]Garhauer's page[/url] where you can get them for $40. I think our tracks are the smaller ones, but I don't remember offhand. I like them well enough, and they certainly make landing the boat easier, but given the choice (now), I think I'd have gone for the nicer ones simply because they're more versatile (bowline through the middle as pointed out earlier).
Thanks for all of the replies. I'm still leaning towards another set of cleats over the cockpit pockets (reinforced inside the pocket with a wide metal strip). A track mounted cleat w/springline appears to not be able to sustain the amount of force placed on it during the 40-60 mph winter winds.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by superbob</i> <br />...A track mounted cleat w/springline appears to not be able to sustain the amount of force placed on it during the 40-60 mph winter winds.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">I won't argue that... Most of us aren't relying on dock-lines in winter winds.
For strength both laterally and longitudinally, I'll suggest a cleat like these instead of with two in-line bolts:
Thanks, Dave. I've already purchase a set of cleats much like the one in the first photo. They're much beefier than the stock cleats and with proper reinforcement under the pockets should do the deed.
Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ. The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.