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By Martin Welby - Christchuch, New Zealand |
I am always interested in ways of saving money, and
one of the biggest money burners on a sailing boat
are the insignificant little fittings. I took my Navigator
to a classic and wooden boat show the other day, and
although the weather wasn't great for sailing I saw
some interesting boats, and came away with some good
ideas.
One good idea was a cheap cleat that I saw on an
old, immaculately restored Frostbite. The owner had
obviously spent a long time sailing. He took his boat
out and raced in conditions that were too hairy for
me. He told me these cleats had never let him down,
and they were the only type he had on his boat. He
used aluminum tube, as I have for mine, but copper
or brass would look good, and you vary the diameter
of tubing for size of rope.
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The tubing
is simply cut at the angles shown...
(click
images to enlarge) |
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| ... and then
a v carefully cut with a small hacksaw. |
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The angle
of the v may require some experimentation,
but the ones that I have shown seem to
work fine. The only other critical thing
is to spend some time with emery paper,
getting the cut part of the v nice and
smooth, with no sharp edges.
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| For the fixing
holes I started to drill the with an oversize
bit, to give some countersink for the screws,
and then drill all the way through with
appropriate size bit for the clearance hole. |
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It took about 15 minutes to make these 2, and cost
me nothing (just stuff lying around the shed). The
other thing I like about them, is they don't catch
things they're not supposed to.
We don't get many of these gatherings down here
in the South Island of NZ, and that is the first that
I have been to, but I shall be going again!
Cheers
Martin
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