Bow Cleats
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I mounted dual bow cleats on the foredeck. These cleats are Merriman and had the same for/aft bolt spacing as the OEM cleat. I only added the four outboard holes. The original inboard holes go through a plywood core insert in the deck. If you look at the headliner in the v-berth and in the forepeak you see a bulge in the panel along the centerline. This is to acommidate the plywood strip. It's about 4" wide. The outboard holes went through balsa core. I removed the core for about 3/4" around the holes and filled with epoxy with a high density filler and drilled through this epoxy plug to mount the cleats. I sealed all the holes with Boatlife caulk.

In this photo you can also see padeyes I mounted just inboard of the toerail to lead the upper lifelines to. This lets the sail go over more easially and keeps it from bagging up on the lifeline. They are placed so the lifelines reach them just as they reach the pulpit. In retrospect I should have mounted these further forward right behind the forward pulpit base and extended the lifelines with a short wire. The sail would then slip outboard nicely and there would be a much smaller gap between the pulpit and the lifeline. It's a bit of a moot point now since I tend to fly the headsails off a pennant that puts the foot up above the lifelines (and gets the sheet lead further aft for a tighter angle). But my 150 is too long in the luff for this so I may add the forward padeyes. Eitherway, sail shape is a lot better when the sail has a fair lead around or over the lifelines.

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