Cleat Repair Frank Wild Bermuda 34

[Tony]

Hello Guys/Girls and hope you are all well.

 

Ive finally moved on to my Bermuda 34 boat and all is well EXCEPT some of the cleats appear to have pulled out of the deck and look as if they have had some attention from Mr Bodgit and his mate, Mr Leggit.

At this time they are holding the moorings ok but im worried that they will eventually pull through altogether and cast the boat free!

 

Can anyone give me a clue as to what the cleats are screwed into (im assuming its not just the fiberglass) and how would I repair or replace these fixings as there appears to be very little access to the underneath.

 

Any help would be much appreciated Guys/Girls.

 

, Tony.

[JawsOrca]

Hi Tony,

 

Mr bodgit and Mr Leggit are very well known.

 

From what you describe the cleats probaby are just screwed (maybe bolted) directly into the glass, these boats I believe/guess have a very thick layup so it should be strong enough to just be screwed through as they aren't intended to really take much weight.

 

To fix them properly you will probably need to do a fibreglass repair depending how bad they are. Have you got any pictures?

 

Access to cleats is always a problem so it's not going to be an easy job if you have limited access.. You should be able to get access though (inside a cupboard/behind a board).

 

To do a proper job you want to bolt in through the fibreglass and into a chuncky piece of wood on the underneath which will help distribute the load.

 

Although again your cleats aren't really intended to take too much load though so check your moorings lines aren't overly tight.

 

[Oddfellow]

Cleats take a hell of a battering and over the past 30plus years on your Bermuda, I would expect that the desk seals have been worn away and allowed moisture in.

 

I would expect there to be a lump of wood under every cleat, regardless of the original layup, but if moisture has got in, you probably have compost there. Possible too that the deck and core material have been rotted away too.

 

This is not an uncommon problem, but not a necessarily simple solution; particularly if you have no GRP experience. Access is absolutely key. Can you get some photos up?

[C.Ricko]

We had a cleat on a Bermuda fly off and hit someone in the face, 

they were originally screwed and bolted but all the screws are now secured to thin air and the bolts attached to rotten wood.

unless they have been in our fleet in the last 10 years in which case we have probably replaced them, we have found similar problems on most Bounty boats which have been sorted too, another problem we found while replacing these was that where the screws have given way and the cleat bent the bolts have cracked making them liable to give under load...

 

hopefully you won't tell me your boat has just come out of our fleet in which case the repair was done on the Thames!   

[ExSurveyor]

It's amazing how the right post comes up at the right time. I have got a loose cleat on the Calypso, it is accessible for a slim and flexible person, I will just have to creak and swear to get to it. I have a cunning plan for saturday that involves a fibreglass repair to a split in the battery compartment, I may reinforce the underside of the cleat at the same time.

The first and only time I have used fibreglass matting and resin was 40 plus years ago at school, it was a very fine bright blue tray. Both areas are out of sight so I will aim for practical rather than pretty.

This will be done between fitting the new calorifier.

At this rate I might give Alan (jawsorca ) a run for his money in the refubishment stakes

[Oddfellow]

The ambient temperature currently is too low for any resin to go off. You will need to heat things up quite a bit to have any success at the moment.

[ExSurveyor]

Thanks Andy, my perfect excuse to move the fibre glass to the To do list

[C.Ricko]

Mark, 

Why do you thing most Calypsos have big vents on the rear toe rail! 

[ExSurveyor]

Hi Clive, I just had a look, I see what you mean

The one I need to get to is the front, much easier access in comparison. Still a bit of a twist and squeeze.