your bow cleat is your friend

barato2

Commander
Joined
Dec 7, 2010
Messages
2,956
your bow cleat keeps your anchor attached to your boat. anchors which aren't attached to the boat are notoriously ineffective.

this is true whether the other end of the anchor rope has a bow cleat attched to it or not, if said bow cleat ain't attached to the boat.

THIS (left side of pic) is what is currently holding your bow cleat on your boat if you have an older Starcraft

http://s1221.photobucket.com/albums/dd462/payasodelmar/?action=view&current=P1010621.jpg

four #10 wood screws are all that stand between you and a rocky lee shore in a storm when your motor is dead. Up to you, but it takes maybe 1/2 hr and costs <$5 to replace em with what is shown on right side. you can get stainless fender washers at Lowes, or just use a hunk of scrap from your floors for backer.
 

1973Chieftain

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May 31, 2010
Messages
1,298
Re: your bow cleat is your friend

Excellent point! Now you've got me wondering if mine is held on by screws.....
 

GA_Boater

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May 24, 2011
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49,038
Re: your bow cleat is your friend

Ya got me going down to boat with a screwdriver in hand, B2.
 

Stevens520

Petty Officer 1st Class
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Jul 26, 2011
Messages
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Re: your bow cleat is your friend

I noticed that while washing mine today;lots of stainless screw with very little backing material.Looks like I'm going to have to go through it and replace them all with machine screws,nuts and washers.Pretty sad that I bumped the stern light, and it lifted off of the deck.:eek:
 

barato2

Commander
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Dec 7, 2010
Messages
2,956
Re: your bow cleat is your friend

pretty much everything will be that way. in an ideal world, we'd replace everything but i mentioned the bow cleat since it's the most critical. have you ever looked at the mess your stern light makes of the alum gunwale underneath it? them suckers are heavy! i'll be adding scrap-plywood backers for pretty much everything

and be careful when doing this job cuz the sheet metal screws have left little hand biters at every hole. i do try to cut myself on the boat every so often, though, to bond with the boat and so fiberglass boat owners won't get too much of an inferiority complex as they scratch their itchies
 

Gibbles

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Nov 14, 2009
Messages
1,845
Re: your bow cleat is your friend

Good tip!

I bet mine is held on with really short wood screws...
 
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