Mast cleat durability

[RogerLennard]

I want my BR20 to last a long time and am very precious about it. I've sailed her twice and have therefore only raised and dropped the mainsail for these occasions or to practise. After my second sail, I was disturbed to see that one of the mainsail cleats showed significant wear. I can only assume that the uphaul has caused this to happen when raising the sail. Am I doing something wrong? Are these cleats just too soft for purpose? If you have a carbon-masted BR20, what is your experience?

[garethrow]

Roger

I sympathise with you wanting to be 'precious' about your boat, and have similar feelings for my BR20 Halen Y Mor. After two seasons sailng I have not detected this sort of wear on the mast cleats - which look as if it may be caused by friction - ie the halyard running across / round the cleat under a bit of tension? I rarely have cause to do this. If pulling the sail up (by hand), there is no need to have the halyard running through the cleat; if pulling it down, I want as little friction as possible so just hold the loose tail of the halyard in my hand whilst pulling the sail down. If you are using a winch to pull the sail up and are running the halyard through the cleat - this might cause the sort of wear you show?
There is a knack for getting the mainsail all the way to the top of the mast without incurring a hernia: Firstly ensure your halyard is exiting the top of the sail on the same side of the mast as the halyard block (starboard on mine). Secondly try tieing the main halyard off on the lower of the two holes in the head of the mainsail. Thirdly, apply some silicone lubricant spray to he mast track before raising it. Fourthly, double check you have everything else good an loose - reefing lines / down hauls, mainsheet, kicking strap. Fithly, use the cleat to take a turn around as you near the last few inches to 'sweat' the sail up to the very top. Once the sail is up, then tie off to the cleat. I haven't found this to cause noticeable damage to the cleats.

Happy hauling

Gareth Rowlands, GRP BR20 Halen Y  Mor

[Nicky R]

I sympathise too as we did something similar to the cleat for our jib furler on our 23 soon after we got her. The friction of pulling the line across the cleat while we furled the jib left a deep gouge in the cleat. Now we make sure we pull the line from the metal fairlead so it doesn’t touch the cleat.

[spikeandco]

Hi Roger. We did exactly the same with our new BR20 last year. We were even more extreme as wore through to the screws before noticing. We got a new cleat from Swallow and I fitted a block in one of the holes on the stainless steel base for the mast. I then have a stopper knot to stop the halyard running through the block and up to the top of the mast. This allows me to raise the sail and hold the tension and then loop over the clea to sweat the halyard before tying off.  Hope that makes sense. I agree with everything Gareth has suggested (we have done it all as well).  We have also replaced the halyard with dynema to reduce any stretch as we needed a new one after the screws frayed the outer sheath of the original. . Hope things go well from now on

[RogerLennard]

Thank you for the help on this subject. I shall make sure to follow all of Gareth's advice and have my can of silicone lubricant at the ready. I had thought of putting in a block where Spikeandco suggested, and was glad to hear that my thoughts were confirmed as a viable option.

How difficult did you find it to replace the damaged cleat? Swallow Yachts got straight back to me, when I had told them about the problem (They have been excellent like that). They said that I would need to take the end cap off the mast to gain access to the nuts holding on the cleat.

Finally, I was wondering why the cleats are not alloy to avoid the issue I had. I suppose that alloy and carbon fibre would cause some kind of galvanic reaction with a very bad ending?

Best regards

Roger

[Ape Ears]

Hi Roger,

Newton's Third Law applies. To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If the friction on the bearing surface of your cleat is not reduced you will rapidly chew through the halyard sheath, or worse stress the carbon fibre mast tube.

It may be helpful to consider the cleat as a mechanism for holding a static load. If you need to alter the angle of strain use a pulley block as Gareth and Nicky have suggested, or a 'handy billy'.

One suggestion if you have difficulty raising the main the final few inches is to take a round turn around the cleat and pull on the halyard as if drawing an arrow with a long bow, and then take up the slack. You may find 'McLube SailKote Dry Lubricant' very effective on the mast track and sail sliders.

Practically if the forces are applied in the right directions the friction forces and stresses on the cleat, halyard and carbon fibre mast can be significantly limited and reduce the risk of catastrophic failure to any of the component parts. As an example the same plastic cleats on 'CraiC' lasted over 15 years.

Kind regards,
Andrew

[Peter Cockerton]

Make up a handy Billy using a Karver KJH,couple of fiddle blocks top one with cam cleat, and spring hook which secures to one of the holes in the stainless fabrication for the mast.
Hand pull the halyard as tight as you can without using the cleat as a leverage point, cleat off, attach Karver KJH to halyard a couple of feet up from cleat, attach spring hook to hole in the tabernacle, tension the halyard using the handy billy, uncleat the main halyard, re-cleat the now tensioned halyard, either take the Karver and handy billy off or leave on, the choice is yours.

I use the same kit to tension my jib halyard.

Peter C

[Llafurio]

The carving in on the Barton cleats is mainly due to the friction and the resulting heat which softens -even melts- the Nylon. Reduce the friction and so also reduce the heat.

But I also have my doubts re the material quality of the Barton cleats. I too had to replace three Bartons on the cabin roof of my BRE, and feel the new -non-Barton- ones of identical dimensions wear harder. Or maybe it's just me taking more care now.

P.S.
My new cleats were half price compared to the Bartons, so no big outlay to replace them from time to time.
C.