The new tornado carbon masts are equipped with Spinlock cleats for the cunnigham. Does anybody have experience with that kind of cleat ? Can you open/close it easily if you are out on the trapeze ?

Thanks.
Ceitzi

I got Spinlock's downhaul swivel cleat two years ago at a boat show. Used it for one season, but changed main sails and I needed to upgrade to a bigger downhaul.

It worked just as well as a Harken cam. Nice piece of hardware for a cat.

I havent ried them, but have seen them and the way they are mounted, and they look like they will work fine. I beleive they are called PX cleats, not your standard Spinlocks.

dave mosley

We fitted them on our Hobie Tiger. You can swap out the stock Harken swivel block & cleat system and reuse the bracket riveted to the mast. They seem to work well enough - very easy to release under load. The Swivel units use the regular small spinlock surrounded by a resin bracket - so it is easy to replace the unit when the teeth on the cam wear out (as they will do).

Our local group found that small spin locks seem to wear out fairly quickly. They may only last a season of heavy use. The weak point seems to be the serrated surfaces that grip the line. Perhaps they need to change to aluminum from the resin material used at present.

Chris.

Been thinking of swapping my downhaul swivel cam cleats (Ronstan swivels) for spinlocks...do the small PX units bolt straight onto the cam perches or is an adaptor plate needed? I believe the PX units I've seen in the shops all have alloy cam locks, not resin.

The Spinlock downhaul cleat I have has an alloy cam.

Also, there is a cage that it mounts into that attaches to the swivel. I don't see how you would mount it onto another swivel unit without the cage that was made for it.

I tried these last year.

First the spinlocks themselves. Great cleats, easy release, but they wear out quickly. Originally they were all plastic cleat. Now the top is aluminum but the bottom is still plastic and does wear out.

Now for the cage that goes around them. The original cages were plastic. I broke these pretty quick. The new ones are aluminum and have held up well. They pin directly onto where your old harken cleat were without having to redrill the mounting plate.

So overall they are better when they work. But for me the hassle of breakage was too much and I switched back to the old system.

Mike Hill
www.stlouiscats.com