Cleats

All of the cleats for the boat were fabricated by yours truly in "Conallville" ( that's what my brother calls my barn).The cleats are made from 1.25" 316 stainless round stock of the L variety. I copied the style of cleat that I see on all of the boats in this area and this style seems to be the best fit for me in regard to where I'm positioning the cleats on the boat. I purchased a 3/4" rounding over bit for my lathe witch does a fantastic job of giving me a perfect radius on the edge of the cleat ( vs the homemade done on the grinder look). The round over bit cost about $40.00 witch I consider a small price for quality, and there will be many other jobs I'll be able to use it on as I do some more finishing type work. Hopefully, folks who know what they are looking at will appreciate the details as I do. I used the lathe to cut all the bevels on the round stock for maximum weld penetration by the MIG. All the parts were pickled, passivated, then re polished once installed. All the cleats are welded in place and while I don't foresee them being torn off, I still think I'll make a few spares cleats to throw in the on board parts warehouse.

I have two aft cleats, two spring line cleats ( mid ship), and four cleats on the bow. I added two more cleats on the pulpit to get the total of four bow cleats just because I had the space and I figured it would also help with the anchors. The two stern cleats, and two of the bow cleats are welded up high off of the deck so that the lines pass through hawse holes I fabricated myself. I used 1" round stainless stock and bent it in an oval shape then welded it to the hull. I also added a doubler plate in this area of the hull to spread out some of the point loads the hull sheathing might see from the 1.25" round stock. The mid ship spring line cleats were held as far out on the hull as I could. I welded this cleat directly to the center bulkhead of the boat also create another frame to move the load to the floor of the cabin vs the hull side sheathing. My experience on spring line cleats is they tend to take the brunt of the load of the boat and I don't want paint popping off the boat by having the hull sheathing flexing. My intent of holding the spring line cleat as close to the cap edge as I could was to minimize line chafe and prevent the spring lines from rubbing the paint off of the hull. After the weld up I was not satisfied that my lines and hull would be protected so I took a some 1" stainless pipe, plasma cut/ripped 1/3 of the pipe away, added some decorative pointy ends and welded it to the hull to act as a rubbing strake. The length of the rubbing strake is 3' and I'm pretty sure it will work just fine. I did create a small issue by adding the rubbing strake in the area of the strake between the cleat and the bow. Because of the height of the strake and the shape of the bulwark cap, I created a small ( 2 square inch) area for water to pond. I'll have to either drill a drain hole of some sorts or add epoxy fairing compund to raise the area and have the water shed overboard. This is a pretty minor deatail, and it is the only place on the boat I know of that will trap water.

I think I'm going to add a sampson type post on the pulpit right above the door because I think it will look good and will also help with the anchors. I also have a sampson type post on the swim platform for the sole purpose of tying off my dingy when she's not stored on the cabin roof.

Conall