Cleats and the bottom line

BOATBUILDERS ARE notoriously mean with the size of cleats they supply. Perhaps they have daintier fingers than common sailors or use thinner lines but I think it far more likely that it’s the bottom line that makes their decision for them.

They fear the wrath of the firm’s ferocious financial manager much more than the complaints of a wimpy bunch of sailors, so they inevitably install smaller, cheaper cleats that simply won’t accept a decent couple of turns of a jib sheet or main halyard with a locking turn on top.

Now we shouldn’t have to put up with this. There are enough frustrations on small sailboats without our having to wrestle with piddling, undersized cleats on a bucking, heeling deck.

Throw the little monsters out. Give them to your dinghy-racing friends. Replace them with sailor-sized cleats and bolt them firmly in place.

The length of a proper cleat is 16 times the diameter of the line used with it. That means nothing less than a 6-inch cleat for 3/8-inch line, or an 8-inch cleat for a half-inch anchor line.

And incidentally, if you fasten a cleat so that it’s angled about 15 degrees across the line of pull, the line won’t jam on itself.

Today’s Thought
Size is a matter of opinion.
— George Meredith, Richard Feverel
Tailpiece
Confucius say fat in human like sugar in coffee — always settle on bottom.

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