SpringCleat Opinions

[Felix]

Has anybody used a SpringCleat on their aluminum toerails? They are the bolt-on (?) cleats advertized in a recent Knotline. What do you think of them? Thx.

 

[Steve Dion]

Have thought about these myself!

Felix:I have thought about getting a couple of these for our boat too. They are available from CS Johnson. They make high quality products and stand behind them. We have often tied a line to the toe rail, so I do not know why they would not work.www.csjohnson.com

 

[Jim Ewing]

What I did

I looked at these and at the genoa track cleats but thought that both were compromises. What I did was get the original cleats from Hunter and had two blocks machined out of UHMW Plastic (if I did it again I'd use aluminum but the machine shop recommended the plastic). The blocks are drilled and counterbored to match the cleat and drilled to match the holes in the hull-deck joint. I bolt the cleat to the block, take out two bolts from the toe rail and bolt the whole assembly through the hull-deck joint. The cleat is now taller than the toe rail, has a fair lead to avoid chafe, and is attached to the strongest part of the boat.Jimh37.5 "Prospect"

 

[Tom FitzGibbon]

Folding Cleats

I took a little different approach than Jim. Rather than subject the toe rail to the tugging and pulling of a spring line, I bought 2 cleats that fold down. The cleats come in a rectangular stainless "tray" that gets recessed into the deck. The cleats are hinged along the long side of the rectangle. They swing down flush with the deck when not needed. When using a spring line, they simply swing up and I can set the lines. When I installed them, I used 2 oversized 3/4 teak rectangles below as backing plates and they look great. I've had these for a little over 3 years now with no problems at all and no stress on the toe rail.Tom FitzGibbonS/V Plan B