Beneteau 321 mid ship cleats

[Florida sail]

I am looking at a 321 and realized that there are no mid ship cleats. Has anyone installed cleats mid ship on this model Beneteau? Is there a reason for the absence? Thanks and I'm anxious to join the ranks of Beneteau owners.
Now all I have to do is find the right boat. All help is appreciated.

 

[DougM]

I have a 323 and it did not have midship cleats either . I added a couple of folding cleats to the toe rail to use for spring lines. The only other choice was to run spring lines through the midship fairleads to the bow and stern cleats, doubling up the lines on those, which seemed like a bad idea.

 

[Benjamin Disralei]

A simple solution as I have done on my 361 was to fix an eye fixing to the toe rail and this works very well for the springer. Can't say I have seen a cleat mid ships on most yachts, mind you I don't look.

 

[cymeyer]

We have a 321 and don't really need a mid ship cleat (might trip over it if there was one). Not sure what it is called, but there is a mid ship "open cleat" (just an opening for a line) and we run our spring line up to the front cleat. Works fine.

 

[Ron20324]

Not a 321, but on my 323 I added mid-ship'ers because I do alot of raftups with the sailing club. On the port, I cut some of the wiring trough in the galley locker to put 2 nuts and a backing plate up there. On the stbd I was able to place the cleat behind the circuit breaker panel, so had easy access. I got the cleats from Syselios. The bolts are cast into the cleat and match the rest of the boat. They are perhaps a foot behind the toerail fairleads. Put in big cleats, as you'll probably always have 2 lines on it.

 

[Rick I]

They don't put them in so as to save a few bucks. A good solution is to splice a line to a large snaphook and clip it on the toe rail.

 

[openhouse]

i have a 321 and like everyone else, i have no mid cleat but i do have a mid fairlead. i have the cleats to match my other ones and i plan on installing them soon. i do have a need for springlines. what i've been doing is putting a noose around the bottom of the side stays and running it through the middeck fairlead. it's definitely strong enough to take the load and it hasn't ruined a rope yet but i'm looking forward to putting the cleats in.

 

[Benjamin Disralei]

Not a 321, but on my 323 I added mid-ship'ers because I do alot of raftups with the sailing club. On the port, I cut some of the wiring trough in the galley locker to put 2 nuts and a backing plate up there. On the stbd I was able to place the cleat behind the circuit breaker panel, so had easy access. I got the cleats from Syselios. The bolts are cast into the cleat and match the rest of the boat. They are perhaps a foot behind the toerail fairleads. Put in big cleats, as you'll probably always have 2 lines on it.

Do you not find the cleat a hassle when moving forward on the deck especial at night time even if it its mounted close to the the toe rail...?

 

[Ron20324]

Do you not find the cleat a hassle when moving forward on the deck especial at night time even if it its mounted close to the the toe rail...?

No... it's maybe 3 inches in from the toe rail, so there's still a wide deck there. You get used to it. Do you ever kick a winch? No, because you know it's there and step around it.

Indoard foot steps at the cleat or before; the outboard foot between the cleat and shround; the inboard at the shrouds; the outboad where the track car is.

 

[Benjamin Disralei]

Hi Ron

I would love to see a photo of your cleat position if it is not to much trouble and I think a few others would also be interested to see what you have done also.

Cheers

Benjamin

 

[dvantong]

I have a 321 and the previous owner put a cleat on the genoa track . It works but sometimes gets in the way.

 

[KoniKoni]

Another midship cleat option for the 321 would be to add one of these screw-on toerail cleats made by a company in England.

http://www.mailspeedmarine.com/deck-hardware/ys/toe-rail-cleat532689.bhtml

According to google, 73 pounds is equal to $121, so it's an expensive option. On my former boat which also didn't come with midship cleats, I screwed a piece of teak to the toerail and attached a fixed cleat to the teak. It worked fine for springlines.

 

[Benjamin Disralei]

Koni Koni

That looks like quite a smart idea and totally out of the way, no stubbing of toes in the middle of the night stumbling around the deck in bare feet while being slightly intoxicated.

 

[KoniKoni]

I just installed the Schaefer mid-deck track cleats.

So far so good. They seem to be well made and strong. See photo. All you have to do is unscrew the plastic end stops and slide em on.

Access on the Beneteau 321 to the port track nuts is through a teak cover. On the starboard side I started to panic when I could not find a cover and thought I might need to cut an access port. However I believe that there us a tapped aluminum plate in the fiberglass under there because I was able to unscrew and then replace the end stop from the top.

My one worry is that these cleats will snag a jib sheet.

 

[joker460]

You could attach one of these to the toe rail. http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wc...001&storeId=11151&partNumber=285173&langId=-1

I put one on my 352 because the midship cleat that Beneteau put on is foward of the beam of the boat.

I can dock the boat with it and the stern line only.

 

[Ron20324]

Hi Ron...I would love to see a photo of your cleat position

Sorry for the delay. B323 side cleats I added. Thes are OEM cleats I got thru Syselios. The bolts are cast into the cleat.

 

[Benjamin Disralei]

Hi Ron20324

Thank you for taking the time to photo and post the cleat position, looks good and out of the way.