Nasty crack noise from cleat

[Homer J]

Hi All,

Rafted this weekend when a big swell came in and there was an audible crack from the mid ships cleat. There is no fibreglass damage visible from on top or underneath but the cleat is a little loose. I suspected one of the bolts has sheared but they don’t appear to be dropping out from underneath.

so two questions

1) does anyone know if it’s a bolt or a screw that secures the cleat? I suspect it’s a bolt but it must be quite small. The boat is a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 37

2) what’s likely to have broken? Is it the thread stripping away? The bolt shearing? Or damage that I haven’t yet seen?

Any advice welcomed

 

[lustyd]

If the cleat is loose then you'll pretty much have to remove it and inspect it. Luckily there should be easy access to it from below if my 36.2 is anything to go by so it shouldn't be too painful a procedure. I'd have something handy to make the holes watertight as it's unlikely to be a quick out and in job.

Could it have been the ply backing plate?

 

[Concerto]

I suspect that the midship cleat was fitted by a previous owner and that place is either balsa or foam cored. The snatch loading has compressed the core. It should be fitted with bolts. You will need to remove the cleat. Take an alum key and spin this in a drill in each bolt hole to remove the core. Tape the underside of each hole and the fill each hole with thickened epoxy. Once set, redrill each hole and refit the cleat. Then do the other midship cleat as this will also be suspect.

 

[lustyd]

either balsa or foam cored.

The Sun Odyssey's generally are designed for midships cleats, mine were factory fitted optional extras. There are also fairleads ready for them to be fitted but they would still have a ply backing plate probably.

 

[Momac]

With any bolt connecting GRP or similar relatively low strength material like timber the bolt itself is unlikely to be the weakest link unless seriously corroded .

 

[Homer J]

Thanks. I’ll have a closer look to see if there is a plywood plate. Jeanneau owners is this likely to be an Allen key or bolt?

 

[jwilson]

On my 2004/5 SO35 (very similar boat) I had one midships cleat come loose quite early on - maybe at two years old. If I remember correctly underside access was by unscrewing a thin cosmetic varnished ply panel, with hex bolts underneath the cleat. Mine had the "Prisma" injection moulded deck with reinforcement moulded in, so I was not worried about just retightening it. Has not loosened again since. Earlier SO37s may have a balsa sandwich deck, but again I'm sure Jeanneau moulded in reinforcement.

 

[Homer J]

Thanks. I think this is the case with mine

 

[Norman_E]

My 45.2 had big cleats that were secured with 16mm bolts. The bolts had seized into the aluminium, and when one cleat had to be removed to replace the rollers the only way to get it off was to cut the bolt heads off with an angle grinder. The remains of the stainless bolts were removed with a stillson wrench after the cleat had been soaked in boiling water by putting it in a big bucket on a gas stove. I had them replaced with studs and nuts.

 

[lustyd]

Also worth a mention of the Facebook owners group at Facebook Groups

If this is anything like the 36.2 group you'll be able to ask for a photo and someone will probably have one or take one. I've used these groups to ask for measurements in the past and people have not only measured things but photographed the tape measure so I could see it myself, really helpful and one of the many advantages of AWBs where things are standard enough to do this!

 

[PabloPicasso]

With any bolt connecting GRP or similar relatively low strength material like timber the bolt itself is unlikely to be the weakest link unless seriously corroded .

Could be any of the components involved. Remove and inspect, if its loose already you'll have to do it as water ingress will cause damage if you don't.

Do let us k ow what it was .