Lm 32 cleats

[henderson111]

During a recent Labor Day weekend with unusual amount of traffic creating lots of waves the starboard bow cleat ripped out. The disturbing part was that the wooden Gunnell beneath the fiberglass was only about 1 inch longer on either side of the bolts which held it in place. The result was the fiberglass was the only thing securing the cleat. I am making backing plates but I am curious as to anyone else's experience. If the other cleats are installed in this manner it is certainly a design flaw to be aware of

[Brian & Glenda]

Yes, that was also my experience in a severe storm event a year and a half ago. With the same cleat torn out as you experienced, I found only a very small wooden block in the toe rail, and one of the cleat securing bolts was only half enclosed by the wooden block, rather than the bolt being entirely through it! It was quite costly to have the fiberglass repair made, but I had a larger block installed in the toe rail than the original, had it bonded to the fiberglass instead of just set in place as the original one was (about 9" long instead of 4" or so) and I also had a backer block installed. The addition of a backer plate required longer bolts to secure the cleat. At that time I procured backer blocks and bolts to retrofit all of my cleats, but have yet to add these backing blocks to the other cleats.

There is a thread regarding LM cleats in this forum (In which I offer some discussion of my experience) at:

lmowners.proboards.com/thread/103/toe-rail-cleats?page=2