Are Your Cleats in the Right Location?

If your stern cleats are buried mid-cockpit, you may be setting yourself up for trouble at the dock, on a mooring, or when a tow is needed.

By
Marc Robic
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13
Mid-cockpit cleats may work for alongside docking, but they leave a boat poorly positioned for Mediterranean mooring or towing. (Photo/ Marc Robic)

Cleats are those ever-present little devices we all have on deck and, until a line must be tied, most boaters pay little or no attention to them.

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Marc Robic
Marc caught his love of sailing and all things water from his father from a very young age. He has owned many sailboats in his 40+ years of sailing. An avid do-it-yourselfer and handyman, he builds, modifies, improves and executes all his own repairs. He also enjoys testing, documenting & sharing products and how-to methods with other sailors and boaters. Posting many how to videos on his YouTube channel and Facebook page. He is a member of the Canadian Power and Sail Squadron. Currently, he sails his Catalina 270, Aquaholic 3, out of the Ile-Perrot Yacht Club in Montreal, where Marc spent 16 years as Harbour Master. He is also a regular bareboat yacht charterer, having sailed most of the Caribbean islands. In the winter months, Marc regularly hand builds exact scale models of friends’ boats to give them away in the spring.
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13 COMMENTS

  1. It might be worth mentioning that these are primarily methods for floating docks and areas with very limited tides. A boat tied up like A or C, along most of the Atlantic seaboard, would hit the dock twice each day.

    If there is a significant tidal range, the stern lines need to be cris-crossed, and the bow and stern lines should be led to the outboard side. This increases the length of the lines, allowing for more vertical movement without causing lateral movement.

    Additionally, fenders alone don’t really work when moored to pilings against a tidal bulkhead. Fender boards can slide up and down without being pushed out of position.

    Sharp angles through fairleads can really chew up ropes if there is any surge. You need chafe gear, and even better, to align the fairleads with the direction of pull so there is only a small deflection. I stopped using the fairleads on my current boat, they are so poorly located. The lead straight from the cleat is very often better. This is true on many boats. Add a smooth stainless chafe rail to the deck as needed.

    • Hi Drew and thanks taking time to add your valid comments. However, as you know, no two docking situations are the same. However, I do think the main objective of the article has been met, which is to consider where your cleats are located and ask yourself if moving or adding some to a better location.

  2. Great article! It’s worth mentioning that standard nomenclature for spring lines names them:
    1. What part of the boat they are coming from
    2. Which direction they are leading

    Therefore the line labeled “bow spring” in this diagram is a “midship forward spring” line.
    A bow spring would exit the bow and could go forward (“bow forward spring”) or lead aft (“bow aft spring”)

    The line incorrectly labeled “stern spring” in the diagram is leading from midship and going aft. It is therefore a “midship aft spring”. A stern spring line will lead from the stern of the boat and often go forward as a “stern forward” spring line.

  3. What is the purpose of the fairleads on the stern of the example boat? They don’t seem to be adding any value in the application shown. It appears that leading straight off the cleat would be just as effective. Am I missing something?

    As far as the naming of spring lines, I like the convention that John Harries teaches: “forward running spring” and “aft running spring”. You only have to look at the line and see what direction it is going and not where it’s attached or what its job is.

    • Yes, what were they thinking with that stern cleat? As tied, it just adds a serious chafe point. I have a pair like that I don’t use.

      If the lines were cris-crossed, as they would be at a tidal dock, the sternlines would rub on the split backstay. Another example of poor cleat and chock location.

      Look how much fun the cleat is to reach, for something you use every day.

      Too little thought or consideration is paid to mooring, even though boats spend nearly all their lives at the dock. As Mark points out, cleat and fairlead location should right up there with a strong keel and a good mast step, and way above upholstery selection and cup holders. I’ve been lucky to own boats with good locations.

  4. I’m not sure red loctite is appropriate. If for any reason you need to remove the cleat you either then need to destroy the fastener and risk damage to the deck, or use a torch, which for most boats is a non-starter (unless it is a steel boat). Blue loctite and a nylock nut, or with properly sized and installed lock washers, would be my choice, it is very very unlikely to loosen but could, if necessary, be removed with significant effort.

  5. To avoid ‘starcracks’ in gelcoat around cleats, fairleads, & or any other stressed fittings, take a reinforcing pad to a ‘stiff point’, like a gunwale, style line, & or similar ‘strong point’. Take the reinforcing pad, (made of anything non-corrosive, rot resistant, & or stiff). If U already have ‘star cracks, spiders, etc’., (& who doesn’t), I found, (in 60 years exp.), U have them, permanently. The ‘good books’ say how to fill, fair, paint etc. but I found the best I could do (permanently), is take the tops off the cracks, to make them less obvious. Painting is only temporary, sanding doesn’t ‘flatten them’. A panel beater’s (dent remover’s), ‘filler’, (bog, mud, bondo) ‘file’, takes the tops off the gelcoat cracks, & makes them less obvious. That was the best I could hope for. ‘B J’. Australis, (hence the different terms).

  6. This winter, I learned (it started moving) that my bow cleat was installed in a cored deck, that the core was not sealed, and that there was no backing plate (only distorted fender washers). Not a fun place to recore, since I did most of the work from inside, but it wasn’t my first rodeo. At least the old bolts were easy to get out, since they were wobbly! Now it’s solid glass and a big backing plate.