How to re-bed cleats?

[Ron Mehringer]

When flood waters raised my H26 above the dock (see Photo Forum: Flood in NJ) the strain on the lines pulled out some dock cleats. Fortunately the boat's stern cleats held. However, the do seem a little loose now.How do I go about re-bedding them? Do I just remove the cleats, fill the holes with some 5200 and reinstall?Thanks in advance.Ron Mehringers/v Hydro-Therapy

 

[Joe]

Re-inforcements

I was advised buy a friend when installing cleats get some longer screws and reinforce with a small piece of white oak wood if you have access to the underside. Seems more appropriate if you have already lost some. Hope this helps.Joe

 

[Ed Knebel]

backing plates

Hunters have an aluminum backing plate already embedded into the fiberglass. Hopefully the threads didn't strip under the load. If they did, you can go up a size and tap the hole to the larger size(ensure the jump up in size is enough so you are cutting into new metal). Use a polysulfide(like lifecaulk) to seal, tighten the cleat almost all the way, let harden 8-16 hours, then tighten the rest of the way. The caulk will form a compressd gasket using proper tighting technique.

 

[Ed Knebel]

P.S. not 5200

Don't ever use 5200 on anything you might ever want to remove. It will take the gelcoat off with it when you use the ten foot pry bar to remove the cleat. Buy a sealant advertisted for bedding hardware.

 

[Ron Mehringer]

Thanks for the help! nt