DaySailer.org Forum

One of the rear horn cleats on my boat is loose and doesn't want to tighten up. I'm sure that the nuts or backing plate has come free. Does anyone have experience with this and know the best / easyest way to correct this problem.

I cannot remember if these are screwed in or use bolts. My suspicion is that they are screwed in. Try to back one out. You may have to slip a thin blade under the head of the screw in order to engage the threads adequately to back it out. If you can do this, then remove the cleat, ream out the backing plate using a small allen wrench in a drill to remove the punk wood, then pack the hole with some epoxy drenched cloth, tied to a string so that you can keep some tension on it to prevent it from falling into the cavity behind the seat. After it has cured, clip the string, and fill the rest of the hole with epoxy until smooth. Redrill with a bit smaller than your screw and remount the horn cleat into your repair, thereby masking the holes from view.

If they are bolts, and the nuts just rotate while you try to loosen the boltheads you may have to resort to cutting holes for inspection ports in the seatbacks to get at the nuts. Using 4" inspection ports allow you to get to a variety of different parts of this boat that are otherwise inaccessible.