Spinlock Cleats a Pain!

Zagato

Zagato

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Anybody have any experience of these. Clicking them up is easy but pulling the sheet down to cleat the rope is ridiculous. I have to really yank down hard on the sheet to do it and even burst a blood vessel in my hand doing it. The rope diameter is ok. I have four of these things and am thinking of swapping them out for simple clam cleats!

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Think you will find you shouldn't need to pull them down. Once you have pressed the back of the cleat down you can pull the 'rope' through and it will lock automatically.
 
You must be doing something wrong. We switched our Sigma 33 main sheet from a cam cleat to one of these tilt cleats because of the difficulty in UNcleating the cam cleat easily under load. The tilt cleat was a joy to use as long as you got the angle right.
 
The tilting part has to be clicked forward and down to lock/cleat the rope (it won't do it in the up position) , to lock it I have to yank the rope directly down and I mean yank - wrapping the rope around my hand and punching down - I have tried various angles as I've tried to get these damn things to work over the last 3 days. The one on the tiller for instance is near impossible to click down as the tiller arm gets in the way i.e. the pull has to be directly down.

I asked on the Drascombe forum if they were standard to a newish Drascombe but they are not and they advised me to get rid of them ASAP and put on simple clam cleats.

The instructions on the later Spinlocks say to just pull the rope up to release and pull down to cleat - these things are £30+ each! I havn't seen anyway of getting in contact with Spinlock to ask about the older cleats.
 
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Zagato said:
The tilting part has to be clicked forward and down to lock/cleat the rope (it won't do it in the up position) , to lock it I have to yank the rope directly down and I mean yank - wrapping the rope around my hand and punching down - I have tried various angles as I've tried to get these damn things to work over the last 3 days. The one on the tiller for instance is near impossible to click down as the tiller arm gets in the way i.e. the pull has to be directly down.

I asked on the Drascombe forum if they were standard to a newish Drascombe but they are not and they advised me to get rid of them ASAP and put on simple clam cleats.

The instructions on the later Spinlocks say to just pull the rope up to release and pull down to cleat - these things are £30+ each! I havn't seen anyway of getting in contact with Spinlock to ask about the older cleats.
Click to expand...
You should be able to lock unlock just by flicking the rope..
I have cabin top traveller and wheel steering and installed these, now I can release and lock the traveller from behind the wheel.

You should have distinct click both during lock and unlock.
- Correct rope diameter?
- Maybe they need some cleaning, have noticed that a buildup of rope fibers can affect operation

Have you tried contacting support? https://www.spinlock.co.uk/en/customer-services/pro-support
 
Yes rope diameter correct as said. I doubt I'll get much joy from 'Support' by text but I'll give it a go! A phone number to actually speak to someone is far better for customer support...
 
I use two of these for a 16-1 continuous main sheet system on a SO342 and they work a treat even though the rope diameter is the very top of the limit. As has been said previously, the angle is important and Spinlock provide withe the cleats one or two (can't remember) of different angles. I used the biggest wedge. They also work best under tension and where you can put a slight downward angle on the exit rope. Great bit of kit when installed correctly.
 
Don't apologise for helping, all help is much appreciated especially now I can call them.

Thanks for the advice on the wedges also folks. I'll play with them again tomorrow once I have spoken to Spinlock. Although the 2006 boat has been hardly used from new the cleats are now 8 years old and probably had no maintenance if needed!
 
ctva said:
I use two of these for a 16-1 continuous main sheet system on a SO342 and they work a treat even though the rope diameter is the very top of the limit. As has been said previously, the angle is important and Spinlock provide withe the cleats one or two (can't remember) of different angles. I used the biggest wedge. They also work best under tension and where you can put a slight downward angle on the exit rope. Great bit of kit when installed correctly.
Click to expand...

i use them on the main sheet traveller, one just has to be careful not to trip them when passing the wheel as thy are on the combing
 
A friend has these on his mainsheet and they are awful! As said they really need to be yanked down hard to lock and I've tried to convince him to convert to standard clutches(I prefer Lewmar!) but he will persist with them.
 
PetiteFleur said:
A friend has these on his mainsheet and they are awful! As said they really need to be yanked down hard to lock and I've tried to convince him to convert to standard clutches(I prefer Lewmar!) but he will persist with them.
Click to expand...

they do not ( in my experience ) need yanking down. a traveller sometimes needs "dumping" pdg, a clutch cant do that whereas these can
 
Zagato said:
Anybody have any experience of these. Clicking them up is easy but pulling the sheet down to cleat the rope is ridiculous. I have to really yank down hard on the sheet to do it and even burst a blood vessel in my hand doing it. The rope diameter is ok. I have four of these things and am thinking of swapping them out for simple clam cleats!
Click to expand...

Spinlock cleats take a bit of technique. The rope still needs to be pulling through the cleat as you change the angle of pull to pivot the cleat.
Without movement through the cleat merely changing the angle of pull does make cleating difficult.
I do not know how else to explain it.
I suggest you give these a further chance. The great advantage over the cam cleat is as you say that they are easy to release in the event of a sudden gust. Both our current and a previous boat are relatively tender with large mainsails, I would not be without the guarantee of instant release of the sheet. This is well worth the extra effort when cleating.
 
johnphilip said:
Spinlock cleats take a bit of technique. The rope still needs to be pulling through the cleat as you change the angle of pull to pivot the cleat.
Without movement through the cleat merely changing the angle of pull does make cleating difficult.
I do not know how else to explain it.
I suggest you give these a further chance. The great advantage over the cam cleat is as you say that they are easy to release in the event of a sudden gust. Both our current and a previous boat are relatively tender with large mainsails, I would not be without the guarantee of instant release of the sheet. This is well worth the extra effort when cleating.
Click to expand...

*******s to that. The explanation is as involved as the operation of the cleats.
Primary control equipment needs to be functional not over clever.
 
johnphilip said:
Spinlock cleats take a bit of technique. The rope still needs to be pulling through the cleat as you change the angle of pull to pivot the cleat.
Without movement through the cleat merely changing the angle of pull does make cleating difficult.
I do not know how else to explain it.
I suggest you give these a further chance. The great advantage over the cam cleat is as you say that they are easy to release in the event of a sudden gust. Both our current and a previous boat are relatively tender with large mainsails, I would not be without the guarantee of instant release of the sheet. This is well worth the extra effort when cleating.
Click to expand...

I am hoping to sail the boat for the first time in the next couple of weeks so trying them whilst actually sailing maybe the answer. An elderly gent commisioned the boat from new and he wouldn't have been able to use the cleats as they are so either I am doing something wrong or they have become stiff over time. It's worth giving them a proper try before I need to swap them out...
 
I've got a spin lock on the main sheet of my Solo dinghy and I think it's excellent. Worth trying to lubricate them with some Teflon spray or similar; they do need to be kept moving regularly otherwise their performance can suffer. As has been said, the cleating angle is quite critical but I never have a problem cleating mine with a judiciously placed foot when necessary and it always uncleats reliably and quickly.
 
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