Mounting Bow Cleat & Chocks

[Geekie1]

Hi All,

I have a small problem and I am going to ask for your help. My V is currently in Cape May County NJ and I am in Doylestown PA, about 110 miles apart. My V has two small bow cleats that I use for docking lines. I have a 10" cleat that I want to install between the sliding hatch and the bow light to snub my anchor rode. I am also installing 2 anchor rode chocks to the port and starboard of the bow light. When I left NJ to return to PA, I forgot to check the thickness of the deck and now I don't know exactly what length bolts to buy. I don't want to make a 220 mile round trip to find out and I don't want to spend time shopping in the Cape May area for fasteners next weekend. How thick is the V deck?? My V is a 1984 model cuddy. Do I need to through bolt the bow chocks??

Geek

[Blue_Runner]

A fine question and I'm sure somebody can help you. I can see where they need to be just right....too long and somebody's gonna gash thier gourd in the cuddy...too short and well, you know :-X

[tsubaki]

I would screw and 5200 the chocks and place the large cleat directly over the bow eye. This is where a lifting eye would be located if you had one. That location is beyond the cuddy interior and the bolt size can be a little long for convience sake.

My cuddy's top thickness is 7/8 - 1 " so at least 1 3/4 bolts will be needed.
The reason I suggest screws for the chocks, you may not be able to reach that far thru the access hole but the only thing there is fiberglass, no wood.

I reread the post and thought you had a ''74.
There should be a lot of difference in the "84's and "75's.

[Geekie1]

Thanks tsubaki,

You hit right on the mark with mounting the bow chocks. I thought that trying to deal with through bolts and nuts in the front access hatch would be a real PITA! I have a small tube of 5200 in the fridge that hasn't turned to stone yet. I am also thinking of installing a duplicate bolt pattern 10" nylon cleat under the deck (upside down) using the through bolts and nuts to tie the end of my anchor rode to. I currently have the end of the rode tied through a hole I drilled in the cuddy shelf. I don't like the hole tie-off arrangement much!!

Geek

[Airslot]

I've done a fair amount of work up on the bow deck this year and as best I can recall, its an 1" to maybe 1 1/8" thick up there. *Mine is an '87. Here's a few of my additions up front:

[tsubaki]

Air does stow the punt gun till ready to be used or it would be up there too!
;D ;D ;D ;D

[msbhammer]

if you bolt the cleats down and they are a bit to long, no worries, just cut the ends off. ;)

[reelapeelin]

I would thru-bolt any docking hardware... ;) ...

[macojoe]

All Cleats and anything that holds the boat must be thur bolted with a backing plate!!
The chocks will be fine just screwed it as they are not the weight berring part of the set up.