[Public-List] Mast Cleats -how many

[Jeffrey]

Hi everyone,

I'm just curious about how many cleats everyone has at the base of
their masts. I've just finished repainting my mast, and need to attach
new cleats.
I have (had) 8 cleats within the first two feet of my mast.  Two 6
inch cleats for the main & jib halyards, a little 4 inch exactly aft
used for a downhaul.  But them I have 4 more 5 inch cleats just under
the halyard cleats. I can't for the life of me remember if I ever used
them for anything meaningful. I use one to tie off the flag
halyard..but that's all I can remember. I haven't flown my spinnaker
yet, would the four 5 inch cleats be for spinnaker halyard & toppings
etc??

Here's a picture from a few weeks ago before I removed the cleats:

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/n1kzcEoV-osm5SlafD8Xd9MTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

If anyone is interested, here's a few pics of the setup I used to paint:

https://picasaweb.google.com/fongemie/May222012?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Essentially, I removed all of the hardware which was not easy. I
stripped the old paint, filled any unneeded holes with thickened
epoxy, then washed and sanded to 150 grit. Washed again with soap and
water scrubbing with a brown 3m pad. I then gave it a quick wipe to
dry then applied Alumiprep...rinsed, then Alodine..then rinsed again.
Once dry, I started in with the coats of two-part primer. For final
paint, I've got 5 coats of System Three's two part LPU. Since it has
been so warm, the paint was tricky to apply via rolling & tipping.
After the 4h coat I lightly sanded before the final coat.

All in all not as bad as I thought. Now to put everything back on .

Jeff Fongemie
#116 Seagrass

http://picasaweb.google.com/fongemie







-- 
Jeffrey Fongemie