Anyone with a late-model Catalina has had to deal with the poorly designed main sheet clam cleat on the cabintop. There was a thread on the Catalina 310 forum (thanks, Truckman) describing replacement of the OEM clam cleat with a proper cam cleat and lead assembly. Since our boats are very similar, I thought this might be a good and fairly easy upgrade.
I removed the screws securing the clam cleat and removed it, then cleaned up all the old bedding (of note, Catalina actually chamfered the holes in the gelcoat - Mainesail would be proud!) and filled them with MarineTex. I drilled (and chamfered) and tapped the holes in the embedded aluminum backing plate, and bedded the Harken cam cleat and lead assembly in butyl with SS screws coated with Tef Gel. Easy upgrade, and a great improvement in mainsheet control.
I removed the screws securing the clam cleat and removed it, then cleaned up all the old bedding (of note, Catalina actually chamfered the holes in the gelcoat - Mainesail would be proud!) and filled them with MarineTex. I drilled (and chamfered) and tapped the holes in the embedded aluminum backing plate, and bedded the Harken cam cleat and lead assembly in butyl with SS screws coated with Tef Gel. Easy upgrade, and a great improvement in mainsheet control.
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