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Spring Line Cleat - 2 Variations.

I've seen a few sail boats with center cleats for a spring line but never really had the opportunity to use one until a recent vacation in Holland.  Here there are locks to traverse, harbours with wharfs to tie to, and pubs that beckon a weary sailor.  The Ijsselmeer is now split in two with a dike across the middle to reduce wind blown swells to the shallow waters at the ends.  The shore ends of the dividing dike have locks so boat traffic can pass between Markermeer in the south and Ijsselmeer to the north.   Both bodies of water are quite shallow and in most places we had only .5M of water under the keel of the Hallberg-Rassy 42.  You get used to it but to ensure we didn't go aground we used a chart plotter and an iPad 3G equipped with a high resolution chart to navigate the "deeper channels" between the sandy shoals.  This is a technique to keep in mind.  What a different style of sailing this is from the hinterland lakes of the Canadian prairies where we have spruce trees, barley sandwiches in the cooler, where locks keep culprits out, not raise/lower boats and almost nobody has a spring cleat! 

The HR42 was equipped with a spring line cleat mounted on each side deck that made tying to a lock wall or wharf a snap.  As the boat is slowed to it's resting spot at the side of the lock I grabbed the spring line, attached to the spring cleat, and flipped it over whatever was available on shore.  Then I quickly pulled the line taut and snubbed it to arrest the forward motion of the 16T boat.  The boat then slowly edged towards the lock wall.  In most cases this is all we did to secure the boat in a lock, since the water was calm.  We also left the engine idling in gear with the rudder turned away from the lock wall to keep the hull straight to the wall.  If the water was turbulent we added bow and stern lines.  When we tied to a wharf I would similarly secure the boat using the spring line cleat, then hop ashore with the bow and stern lines to secure the ends to the wharf.  The free ends of the bow and stern lines then went to the spring line cleat, replacing the single spring line I initially tied.  Sure a lot stronger than tying a spring line to an SJ23 stanchion!  This is the quickest and most secure I have ever tied a boat.  Mind you I had to be quick or I would have to find my own way to the pub!  Actually not, but friendly ribbing worked to speed things up since everybody was anxious to wet their whistle.  Suffice it to say that the spring line cleat came in real handy.  This guy gives a good demonstration of the technique spring line docking.

So, how do you install a cleat on an SJ23 that has a toe rail?  Well it depends on the style of cleat you select.  If you have the money for a folding surface mount cleat then all you have to do is install it on the side deck.  Seal the holes through the deck with epoxy and use a tapered backing plate.  Problem is, the backing plate shows through the head liner. 
The other style cleat shown below bolts to the top of the toe rail.  It is simple to install and looks strong enough.  I have seen one mounted on a C&C27.  It stays up when flipped so it is quick to use and stores well out of the way.
Then there is the rigid cleat.  More complex to install and strong.

SOLUTION 1 - If you install a rigid cleat then you have to raise it above the toe rail so the spring lines can wrap around the horns.  As an example, the cleat at right is mounted on my friend's C&C27 and the one below is installed on Panache.  The following steps describe this installation. 

1. Cut a 1" square aluminum tube approx 10'' long.  This serves as a secure spacer to raise the cleat to the top of the toe rail (shown below) and support a possible chock.  Water can flow through the hollow tube to keep the deck clean.  You could use a block of hard wood instead of the aluminum tube.  Your choice.

2. Bend the tube a bit to follow the curve of the toe rail.  A snug fit makes for a secure installation. 
   If you place a couple of 1/4" thick metal spacers under the ends of the tube and then "tap" the tube in the center using a 10 pound sledge, the tube will bend quite nicely!  Just make sure you "tap" it with the flat face of the sledge.  You need ~1/8" deflection in the middle of a 10" long tube.

3. Angle cut the ends of the tube so your shoe deflects off rather than stubs on the end of a square tube. 
   I haven't jammed my foot in the cleat yet but if I do, I'll install a wood plug in each end, incorporating a drain hole in the bottom of each plug.

4. Grind and polish all metal surfaces to eliminate meat hooks.  Gawd I hate those. 

5. Paint the spacer flat black to match the toe-rail for a finished look.

6. Mount a 6" long nylon cleat with a rectangular style base as shown here.  Remember, this cleat must be big enough to hold 2 spring lines twisted around it.  I purposely bought cleats with straight horns to minimize a chance of snagging a sheet.  This works.  Use a metal cleat if you tie up in a windy place. 

There are many ways to fasten the spacer to the toe rail.  It depends on the strength you need. 
- The strongest is through bolting to the deck with stainless washers or aluminum backing plates.  Then bolt horizontally through the inside of the toe rail.  However, you risk leaking through the deck. 
- Bolt the spacer horizontally to the inside of the toe rail and add sealant to prevent movement.  You just might be surprised with how much strength the sealant adds.  This technique is OK if you never have an upward pull on the cleat like when you tie to a high dock or transit a lock.  This is how I mounted the cleats on Panache.  If bolting to just the toe rail proved to be weak, I could always through bolt them to the toe rail later.  This has not proven to be the case.
- Alternatively, you could remove two toe rail screws and insert longer screws to fasten the spacer to the bottom of the toe rail.  Good luck lining up the screw holes and keeping the water out though.
Regardless of your technique, use liberal amounts of adhesive for strength and to keep water out of the cabin.  Use nylock nuts to prevent movement.

7. If you bolt the cleat spacer to the side of the toe rail (in line with the forward end of the window), you should install 2 aluminum wedges to fill the gaps between the square spacer and the angled inside of the toe-rail.  Without these wedges the square spacer will get pulled up off the deck, making a weak installation.  The strongest installation is with two wedges in line with the mounting bolts.  Each wedge must be 1" tall and tapered about 10 degrees. 

8. I clamped the assembly to the toe rail and drilled horizontally through the toe rail, wedge and both sides of the spacer.  Then fastened the assembly with two long screws.  This way a wrench can fit over the nut for tightening as shown at right.  A little detail that make this job so much easier. 

9. Finally, remember to flush some water through it every now and then.  After many years of not having done so, I was amazed at how many dead bugs were flushed out.

SOLUTION 2 - "This Tech Tip about mid-ship cleats last spring got me to thinking.  Always a dangerous thing!   After searching around in the basement junk pile I found an old 5 or 6 inch cleat plus a chunk of 1.5" square aluminum bar stock and whipped up this little project just to see if it would work.   It worked really well over the summer sailing season so now it's time to release the idea into the wild.

I admit I've got a bit of an advantage because I've got a small lathe and milling machine in the basement, but I see no reason why a person couldn't do pretty much the same with a hacksaw, power drill, power sander, some files, a set of taps, and some determination.   The trickiest thing was boring the long hole and cutting the slot.  You could rough it out with a drill press and get your friendly neighbourhood machinist to cut the slot.  The curve of the toe rail means that the hole and slot have to be somewhat oversize so the assembly can slide along the rail easily.   Why can you only drill a curved hole when you don't want one?  Be prepared to spend some time with your files and it's good if the boat is close by for trial fittings.

Because the upright portion of the toe rail leans inboard, the position of the cleat is such that there is no problem fouling the sheets or anything else.  Voila!  No drilling holes in the deck, no wondering exactly where to put it, no toe stubbing and it's easily adjustable for any dock you tie up to.   My only concern is that strong waves or currents could possibly bend the toe rail, but if you find yourself in that kind of situation you should probably be heading away from the dock and out to sea anyway.  The whole business slides onto the toe rail at the stern and if the pin fell out, it's likely you would notice before the cleat slid back and fell off the boat completely.   The pin is a 3/8" quick pin with a ball detent." 

Dave Doan
S.V. Sybill

CLEAT CHOCKS - Installing a rigid cleat on the balsa cored deck (away from the toe rail) would take precious space and become an instant toe masher, unless you use cleat chocks.  Smashing your toes is not a lot of fun!  If your jib sheet gets tangled on the cleat you could wrap your mooring line around it to fill the horns and coil the remainder of the line, hanging on the life line.  Then it is in a handy place when you have to use it.  I do the same with the bow and stern mooring lines to save time when sailing solo.  If you prefer, fabricate a couple of form fitting chocks to fill the horns as shown below.  There are a myriad of ways to hold those chocks; bungee cord, line tied around, a clasp, etc.  I'll leave that part to you.

NOTE - It would be clever to cut the aluminum spacer under the cleat long enough to also support the cleat chocks.   Even if you don't require the chocks, the extra length of the spacer will strengthen the installation to support the spring lines.  This is what I did as shown in the photo above.

HINT - If you are roaming from dock to dock, your dock lines should be tied to your boat.  This way you only have to release the line on the dock and gently pull the line in to retrieve it.  Quick and slick without having to step on shore.  There you go, looking cool again!

Now that you have a spring cleat you can practice docking with it.  Tie the line to the cleat, approach the dock dead slow, have a crew jump on the dock and quickly cleat the line to the dock.  As the tight line arrests the forward motion of the boat, the boat will gently slide sideways to the dock.  You could keep the engine idling and the rudder hard over to keep the hull parallel to the dock.  This also gives you time to tie in the bow and stern lines.  Looking cool again!  What a great place to tie the boom preventer to!
 

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