No cleats on boat. Where to put them?

[NSBCraig]

Re: No cleats on boat. Where to put them?

I've seen people have problems with the spring loaded not staying down, even when new.

 

[QC]

Re: No cleats on boat. Where to put them?

Good reason to go "pull up".

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: No cleats on boat. Where to put them?

For lightweight areas consider the nylon (black plastic) cleats and rope guides. They are still pretty strong and don't hurt as much when you kick them. They will crack in freezing weather.
Around salt water, the fewer moving parts, the better. Thus I'd avoid pop-ups and especially spring-loaded ones.
There's an aluminum jon boat called something like G3; my brother in law has one and it had no stern cleats. He needed some for light-weight mooring, so he just screwed them in (ice pick to drill hole; sheet metal screw). Cheap easy and effective.
Since you have the choice about where you put them, consider how exposed and convenient, or not, that you need them; the exposed convenient ones catch stuff. Also rig them based on the projected direction of pull: you don't want a line to pull up against the cleat, directly on the screws; you want lateral stress.
Get cleats with a hole in them so you can keep and extra line in it (such as for a bait bucket or drab line) and you can run the lop for a mooring line through them for quick tie/release. It make s it nice if you don't keep your lines tied off all the time.

 

[bkwapisz]

Re: No cleats on boat. Where to put them?

Good reason to go "pull up".

I'm leaning that way. I hate to drill holes in my boats, and I'd hate to put in a spring loaded job only to have to change it. Since the boat will be stored on a lift during the season, I think that stationary cleats will be in the way most of the time-- at least in the bow area. I guess I'll check out these pull up jobbie-do's.

Thanks again.

 

[QC]

Re: No cleats on boat. Where to put them?

Now that I have pondered this more I can't think of what real benefit there is to "pop up" as opposed to pull up. You still have to reach for the cleat before you can put line on it, so pulling it up is how much harder than pushing the button? Other than that there is only downside . . .