Cleats vs fairleads
During the strong squall of last week on the Adriatic Sea, one of the forward fairleads of my 411 failed while at mooring.
Being in a "finger" mooring, the line that sheared the fairlead comes from a cleat on the berth approximately at mid boat, enters at the bow whence it goes to the nearest cleat close to the forward hatch. In this configuration the fairlead must bear the double of the force on the line and there is no surprise that it failed even if there are other lines holding the boat.
Now I turned around the boat but I need to fix the thing as soon as possible.

I have two questions.
First: wouldn´t it be more convenient and possible to install a cleat instead? Possibly on both sides. I see many boats with cleats instead of fairleads along the toerail and they seem to have less problem than I often have with my mooring lines.
Second: any suggestion on the kind of fairlead/cleat to install?

Daniel, 411/004.

Daniel:

Do you have any photos of the damaged fairlead? I have two heavy stainless fairleads that came off my 411 when I replaced the toerail, now I have 2 fairleads from Nautor's on each side. I have had lines nearly cut through by the fairlead already, just one gale, and not doubling up as in your case. Anyway, I am interested in the same thing - a picture might help stimulate some ideas.

Fair Winds,

Geoff, Corazon, 411 #41

Geoff,
thank you for your post. Presently I do not have a picture but I will do it soon. In the meantime I am working on a drawing to show how my boat was moored when the fairlead failed; I will post it as soon as I finish it.
I am pretty sure that the fairlead was original and it was made of aluminum. How are the ones you installed lately?

Daniel, 411/004.

I enclose a picture of the CAD drawing I just finished.
The line that broke the fairlead is the one from the bow (port) to mid finger berth. As you can see its angle of work at the fairlead is very close to 180 degrees which doubles the stress.
You can also notice that all the lines that exit from the midboat fairlead are secured to winches; this is something that should be avoided but I do not see any alternative.

Daniel, 411/004

Daniel

I am a little confused why you would have the lines reversing - why not just run two lines - a forward spring, from an aft dock cleat, through the fairlead, to a forward winch or other hard point, and similarly a line from a midship or forward dock cleat, through the fairlead, to one of the primary winches, as an aft spring? Perhaps I did not understand your picture correctly, but it seems like you are trying to do the same thing, only you are doubling the lines back, which as you say is overloading the lines at the fairlead and I am not sure why you would do that. I sometimes use the spring line scheme I described, and it works well - I think the winches can take the generally light loads of the spring lines, but in a heavy gale this summer, I did have a half inch line just about chafe through (I had no chafing gear on the line though).

You asked about the Nautors fairleads - they were fair, at best, I thought - rough surface in general, as cast - not really bad as in a sand casting, but rough enough, like an investment casting. I asked about it, I wanted to make sure they were at least anodized, and Nautors said they were - but I am sure that rough surface didn't help when it came to my line chafing.

As you have said, maybe you can install cleats midship and solve some of these problems. I have used snatch blocks on the toe rail midships for the same purpose, and I have also just tied bowlines to the toerail and brought those lines to cleats at the dock for spring lines too.

When I bought my boat, she had replacement fairleads made from stainless, which were pretty nice but when I replaced my toerails I did notice that the retention and bedding of these replacement fairleads wasn't that great. I might get new stainless ones made up now that I know what I want. I will take pictures of my stainless ones and post them tomorrow so you can see the difference. My new Nautors fairleads can be seen on the project page on this website.

Fair winds,

Geoff
Corazon 411 #41

Geoff,
thank you for your reply. I was not clear enough because I forgot to point out a few things.
1) the finger pier that runs beside the boat is actually as in the drawing, i.e. it is shorter than the boat.
2) the prevailing winds tend to push the boat downward in the drawing, i.e. forward, towards the main pier. Any line resisting such tendency is highly stressed.
Having clarified this, as far as I understand the only possible lines that prevent the boat from moving forward and hitting the main pier are the two I drew: one from the bow and one from midship. These lines should be actually both defined as "springs", I understand.
The spring from midship is fine but insufficient, the spring from the bow has got problems.

Daniel, 411/004

Dear Daniel
The line turning nearly 180 degrees through the forward fairlead creates a situation which should be avoided. A roller fairlead may be slightly better, but the big turning angle is likely to create problems also here.
Would it be possible to increase the size of the aft spring so it can take the full load? You could also consider having two strong cleats made up so they can be attached to the genoa sheet track in different positions, and locate them so the fwd and aft springs through the toerail fairlead come nearly straight to these cleats. This would be the ideal situation for reduced chafing and load on the fairlead.
Best regards
Lars

Dear Lars,
I am very glad I posed the question and I thank you very much for replying. I knew of the possibility of using the genoa track for fixing temporary cleats but never considered it seriously. The fact that you are suggesting it makes any doubt disappear instantly.
I will look around for available devices and report back to the forum. Any additional advice is appreciated.

Daniel, 411/004

Daniel
You could also consider harbour cleats which are clamped around the toe rail with attachment bushings fitting the rail holes. The direction of pull should be approximately along the rail.
Best regards
Lars