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Frustrated by a shortfall of spring cleats

on his Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 32, Bob

Goode decided to remedy the situation

I

have long bemoaned the lack
of spring cleats on our Sun
Odyssey 32, especially
when rafted deep in places like
Guernsey where you quickly
run out of places to hang a line.
However, as access to the
underside of the deck is excellent
on the SO 32, the solution is
within the abilities of even the
most ham-fisted DIYer. In fact, the
greatest impediment proved to be
finding cleats to match the original
Jeanneau ones at a reasonable
price. Accastillage Diffusion in
Cherbourg offered the solution at
r42 each (about £30 at the time).
The location was selected with
two points in mind: firstly, the most
useful position on deck, and
secondly, keeping the backing
pads unobtrusive below decks.
The chosen spot fell within the
heads on the port side, where a
fabric headlining would cover a
large part of the backing pad,
and just forward of the galley

Retro-fitting spring cleats

Drilling the 1.5mm pilot hole after
locating the ideal position using
the genoa track fixings, which
are visible below decks. The old
dodge of using masking tape to
stop the drill slipping will not
work as the deck is non-slip
at this location

The cleat is dry-bolted into place, using the first hole to

line up the second hole for drilling

The finished cleat. Note how it is positioned and the point of

maximum beam, avoiding snags on the genoa sheet

The first bolt coming through the solid

fibreglass between the hull-deck joint

(on the left of the photo) and the cored

section of the deck, just to the left of the

wooden lining

bulkhead on the starboard side,

where they would be under a

headlining panel behind the

chart plotter and radar displays.

The deck moulding is cored for

the most part and reinforced in

high-stress areas such as the

mounting points for deck

hardware. However, the outer

edges are solid laminate and sit

bonded on the hull moulding,

through which they are bolted

at the toerail.

Genoa track bolts

There is a narrow zone of

single-thickness laminate between

the double thickness of the

hull-deck joint and the cored

part of the deck, which is further

inboard. My plan was to run the

bolts through in this zone to avoid

any possibility of disturbing the

coring and risk of water ingress.

As the genoa track bolts were

visible from both above and below

deck, I used these as a datum for

measuring where to drill the holes.

A 1.5mm pilot hole was first drilled

in the measured position and a

needle inserted so that alignment

could be checked and any

necessary adjustment made

before taking the plunge with

an 8mm drill. Any small

misalignment would fall beneath

the cleat base and so be both

sealed and invisible.

Once the first 8mm hole was

opened the cleat was dry-bolted

into place and used to align the

second hole for drilling. The

backing plate was made from

5mm-thick stainless steel, polished

on one side as part of this would

be visible in the heads. C & B

Marine made these for me for a

quite reasonable fee. After this, it

was simply a matter of applying

a generous layer of sealant and

lightly tightening the nuts. The

sealant was left to cure overnight

before a final tighten with a

spanner and, bingo – job done.

Now to find a raft to join!

HERE’S HOW I DID IT...