A different kind of jamb cleat

[J. Dillon]

"Carrianne "will be docked in a thin water marina next season. In fact she will be dry for almost two hours each month during spring tides. Consequently A kick up rudder is in order as well as it’s attending controls. I all ready had built such rudder. In refining the controls I developed about the most simple jamb cleat around. I never seen one before but maybe some here have.
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/6283/rroundjambcleatip4.jpg

It’s nothing more than a big washer with a center screw. To prettyfy it I epoxied a miniature thump mat on top. I wanted something that can be engaged quickly from any angle, released just as easily but didn’t want any part of the plastic jamb cleats or a wooden one on top of my tiller. This cleat will receive the pull up lanyard of the rudder while the bottom standard wooden one will take the pull down lanyard which has a length of shock cord rigged in. Both lanyards hav a toggle and pass through fair leads made from scrap brass and two flared copper tubing as shown. You have to "tune " each "washer cleat" by adjusting the center screw to find the best holding power for the thickness of the lanyard used and the ease of release ratio.

I ‘ll have to wait till next season for sea trials.

JD

[Kim Whitmyre]

Looks good! Xlnt solution. . .

[rbgarr]

That kind of cleat is commonly used on leech lines on sails, and it looks like a nice alternative for your purposes.

[JimConlin]

Another alternative-
http://www.clamcleat.com/uploads/cleat_images/95_a.gif

[John Meachen]

Jim's close but the CL257 is the one you ought to look at.It releases when overloaded.

[Dave Davis]

Loud and clear, no plastic. Hey, you got two ferrules as fairleads, why not cut a slot in a small piece of brass or more likely copper tubing to make a jam cleat? That washer's gonna pull the screw out the tiller eventually. Here's the idea in plastic: http://www.simplicityboats.com/n_stuff.htm

[Tom Lathrop]

I think Jack's solution is very elegant and hope he doesn't mind if I copy it on the boat I'm now building. I have used the cleats on kick-ups offered by the others but think his will be best.

[John B]

Nice work Jack. Innovative.

[Klaus]

The only problem I see with that idea is the way you wrapped the rope around. The ropes torque acts to 'unscrew' the centre screw and I'm sure it eventually will happen.
Now, if you wrap the rope around the other way it will self tighten.
Klaus

[Tom Lathrop]

A spacer nut under the washer and another let into the underside of the tiller for a machine screw would take care of that and Jack has probably already thought of that.

[Thorne]

I've got a cast brass tube jam cleat from Davey on my rudder head, and let me tell you, that design chews up line like no other!

I love the 'yare-ness' of the design, and the fact that it keeps the line in the cleat, but had to change from Hempex (shown in the photo) to Spectra after the edges of the tube cleat (which were *not sharp*) severed the line repeatedly.
http://www.luckhardt.com/kickup-full1.jpg

[J. Dillon]

Only sea trails will find the flaws in the design.:eek: But I think they can be easily rectified. For now I keep the washer "floppy" that is not screwed down tight to the tiller. This allows the washer to tilt up fwd. and then the lanyard wedged behind the washer. Varying the In/out of the screw accomplishes this. The trials will reveal if the screw backs out any . I do think the load on the cleat is relatively insignificant but time will tell. One thing I will say so myself, the thump knot cleat is elegant as mentiioned by Tom. BTW Tom you and any body here can use the idea and hopefully improve on it;)

JD