Adding cleats to cabin top

[john trussell]

I've spent a little time playing with my Sunday Cat, and I've found a few things that I would like to change.

First, I would like to replace the "backup cleats" for the halyards with bigger cleats. Second, I would like to add a topping lift and a block and cleat for it. The factory installs a headliner in the cabin top and this covers up the inside attachment points for the existing cleats. Can anyone give me any insight as to how to replace/add cleats on the cabin top while doing as little damage as possible to the headliner?

JohnT

[rogerschwake]

  The back up cleats on the back side of the cabin are put on with self threading sheet metal screws. Not sure what those cleats are for, maybe to coil the halyards on. I had some trouble bumping the halyard stops at first, you will get use to them with a little time and won't need the cleats on the back of the cabin, trust me. The back of the cabin is a great back rest and cleats there are just in the way. The cabin makes a great place to throw all those lines. The cabin head liner is glassed to the under side of the deck with about a half inch of some type of foam between them, the head liner isn't a separate piece. On my cat I added jack lines and lead one of the upper lines down the mast and to the aft end of the cabin to a cleat, this makes it a adjustable topping lift also, killing two bird with one stone. Attach your jack lines so they go through your sail cover the same places as gaff halyards, this works for me with no changes to the sail cover. Keep asking questions and we will try to help you and not confuse you to much.

ROGER

[john trussell]

Roger,

Thanks for the response. I have a Sunday Cat with the little cuddy and the Mastender Plus System (which works very nicely)--not a Suncat. There are three horned cleats which back up the Spinlock Cleats for the Mastender Plus, and the two halyards. The two back up halyard cleats are mounted on the roof of the cuddy and not the cuddy bulkhead, so they don't interfere with the backrest provided by the cuddy bulkhead. I am inclined to think that these two cleats are largely superfluous. The back up cleat for the Mastender plus is mounted on the inside of the front of the cuddy.

It doesn't sound like the factory intends for the owner to change cleats. Perhaps the solution for the Mastender Plus back up cleat (which I don't think is superfluous) is to whittle a larger cleat with the same bolt hole spacing as the factory cleat and use the same bolts and self tapping as the factory.

My inclination for a topping lift is to run a line from the aft end of the boom to a block somewhere around the block for the throat halyard, down to a block on the stub mast and then to a block on the base of the mast. I can probably cleat it to one of the backup halyard cleats. I once built a Bolger Light Schooner which had lots of lines and cleats which I whittled, so I have some experience with home made cleats.
Thanks again.

JohnT