C-16 Mainsheet cleat question?

[Cats Paw]

Can anyone comment on the conversion/replacement of a stationary stock main sheet cam cleat to a swivel base main sheet cam cleat?
More user friendly? Any notable difference. Is it worth upgrading to the swivel type?

[skip1930]

I used what ever the factory put on the boat.

Why do you want to change? What is the problem?

But I did bend the tang up that the jam cleat sits on for a better angle where the sheet pulls through the jam.

And I put a wood screw with some of the screw sticking out under the tiller to raise the tiller up a tad.
The head of the wood screw sits on the aluminum rudder casting.

I also got rid of the side by side block at the end of the boom and replaced that with an inline block.
This stopped the sheet from twisting around in light winds.

skip.

[brackish]

Not sure what is stock on the 16 but I personally could not operate a loaded up mainsheet on my 23 if not for the swiveling base to keep the lead angle to me no matter where I am in the cockpit.

[Cats Paw]

Not looking to change anything out for the sake of it. Just curious if an improvement to function would be the resultant. "Skip" claims to have modified his main sheet purchase system for better function with positive results. And "brackish" changed out with a swivel base for easier sheet control.  I will take this under advisement going forward.

My C-16 has a fixed cam cleat with a fair lead loop at the mouth of the cleat.

[brackish]

And "brackish" changed out with a swivel base for easier sheet control

It actually came stock on the 23.

[Salty19]

The older CP16 has a simple, fixed cam cleat system without a block on the cleat base.

I swapped mine out on out old 16 with a ronstan swivel system and never looked back.
A very similar one came stock on our 19.

[MHardy]

The problem with the factory set up is the sheet doesn't run freely through the fairlead. At least it doesn't on my '83 16. Here are a few previous post that address the issue. I have purchased the cleat shown in the second post, but have not installed it yet. It requires a little modification in order to work properly on the 16.

http://cpyoa.geekworkshosting.com/forum/index.php?topic=377.0
http://cpyoa.geekworkshosting.com/forum/index.php?topic=5337.0

[mattman]

I went a different route and put a 4:1 with cam cleat on a line that tied to the original block starboard to the original fairlead and cam cleat. Tthe lower blocks with cam slide back and forth on the line which can be tensioned to either to ride more in the middle(set loose) or tighten to slide outboard. An improvised traveler if you will. Basically stole the idea from my Laser. here is what it looks like on a laser.

http://www.laserxd.com/sailing-how-to.php  second picture.


This is a quick easy mod, I used Ronston series 40's rated at 800lbs swl. And no extra holes drilled.
Best of luck Matt.

[Salty19]

A pic of the cleat I mentioned:



A genoa track cam cleat completes the sheet handling.

[mikew]

Yes, I replaced mine with a swivel block.
My stock fixed cam cleat was causing a lot of friction in light wind and I found I had to pay out the sheet by hand from the block.
I removed the old block and used a Schaefer "cam cleat on swivel base"  #SCH-7061. It works alot better, the line pays out easy now and
the swivel moves to my helm position. I removed the old hardware which are thru bolted with a socket ( very difficult getting your hand and arm in position), then I used one mounting hole of the three with machine screw, washer and locknut. The other two holes wouldn't line up so I
drilled pilot holes and used SS sheet metal screws, with 4200 caulk. The part is about $85. I also bent the bracket some to flatten it a bit for a better sheet angle. It is a worthwhile mod for the older cp-16's.
I think Harken makes one too.
Mike

[nies]

Great minds think alike.............I replaced  on my 1978 in 1980 and have never been sorry, a good up grade......nies

[Jason]

Hi All,

While simple, and therefore beneficial, the original design mainsheet block arrangement involved high friction on the mainsheet which, to me,  resulted in occasional difficult releasing of the mainsheet in medium to light winds.  Don't get me wrong, the original design is A-OK! and has surely functioned well for over 3 decades and thousands and thousands of miles; however, as someone who looks for projects and improvements, and also convenience, I decided to modify the design to a lower friction system which allowed me to let out the mainsheet in medium to light winds without needing to manually push the boom out.

I went for the arrangement pictured below, Harken mainsheet block with swivel base on the port side , with new harken block on the starboard side, and added a harken fiddle block on the boom end.  I live near Harken so am biased.....

I tie the mainsheet through the port-side block-center with a bowline, then run the sheet through the fiddle, through the starboard mainsheet block, back through the fiddle, through the port mainsheet block, through the swivel cam and into the cockpit.  It should be noted that when I received the swivel cam base, there was a wedge underneath the cam to angle it upwards; I found this inconvenient when releasing the mainsheet, thus I removed this wedge and positioned the cam level, and this position has worked much better.



-Jason

[Cats Paw]

Thanks all for the detailed input on the issue. With the weather starting to break finally here in Michigan I am starting to Rev Up on my CP-16 1980  restore project. With the snow finally cleared I was able with the help from my son haul the boat from the back lot were it slept all winter to the hard/driveway.  Will be rolling it into the garage latter in the week.
Will start with the forward bunk and bilge replacement etc.   Pics of the progress will be posted from time to time.

[skip1930]

The items in question:

The factory swivel cleat from the factory. I just bent it up a bit.

The in-line 4:1 purchase block at the end of the boom. This will not twist like the side by side 4:1 purchase block from the factory.

[Gerry]

I put on a Ronstan swivel cam cleat.  Works perfect from any position.