Oday 22 cleats

[Drew]

As my niece would say "you make mistake Uncle Drew". I was going to change the cleats which tie off the jib sheets on my 22. I did not see any access to them from the cabin so i mistakenly thought that they had some sort of embedded fatner that the screws went into. Much to my dismay as I lifted the screw from the holes I heard the gentle rattle of something falling into my hull and have no clue where they went. I have lifted the access holes under the cabin seats but nothing was there.How do I rescure these screws? and or change the cleats to cams?

 

[Bob McGee, O'Day 22]

I know where they are.

They are in the space between the head liner and the deck. I mounted two cams for my jib sheets a couple of years back on each side just aft of the coachroof. The starboard one went on fairly easily because I could get access for attaching the nuts from the starboard cockpit locker. The port side cam was a bit more of a challenge. I drilled a one inch hole through the head liner above the port quarter berth, hopefully exactly beneath where I had already drilled the holes for the cam. There's about 3 or 4 inches of space between the two liners. After mounting and sealing the cams, I put the nut in a shallow socket head with an extension, fed the socket head through the hole in the head liner and up to the bolt by feel. Once I got a little bite on the bolt, I changed to a deepthroat socket, and with the Admiral holding the bolt head, I tightened the nut. Then I got some of those "hole covers" like the ones covering the nuts on your handrails. Everything seems to work, and it doesn't look too bad..Bob McGee

 

[Drew]

Thanks Bob

If no one elso makes a suggestion then yours will be next on my list of to-do'sThanks