Has anyone tried putting a spacer under the factory cleats to raise them up higher? My buddy just bought an 07 28 Heat, and yes, those factory cleats that are recessed into the hull absolutely suck. Even with a thin dock line, I thought we were going to have to cut the damned thing to get it off the cleat! It would suck to have to untie in an emergency! Keep a knife handy.

those same ones i installed will fit in place of the factory recessed ones. what i'm trying to figure out is if i can fit the 8" ones in there. it will be close, i just haven't had time yet to remove the factory one and set the template in there.

here's the installation template if anyone is feeling ambitious.

http://www.gemlux.com/pdf/CuttingEdg...ationGuide.pdf

The set-up looks nice. What all is involved getting to tighten the nuts on the new cleats? I agree, the front placement of the stock cleats is useless.

on my 2000 it's easy, the storage area on the port side just has some carpet you have to peel back and the starboard side is next to the fuse panel behind the mirror by the cooler. however, some of the newer heats have built in cabinets in some of those areas so you'd have to get in touch w/ nordic to see how to get access.

Years ago, the fellow with the first Heat in town pulled up and we were BS'ing. I said why don't you tie off? He pulled over. I looked at his boat and nothing on my Baja, which tied off easily to every other boat in town and dock, lined up with anything on his boat. I said, how do you tie your boat off? He said, you can't, which pretty well sums up the old cleat arrangement.
In fairness to Nordic, I think at one time, in the pleistocene era before pop up cleats, the factory was trying to be, as they always are, stylish, with the recessed, no visible hardware, studded cleats. The problem is of course, they don't adhere to ABYC cleat arrangements on everyone else's boats, and you can't get to the bow cleats unless you get on the bow.
This drove me crazy, so I added a recessed bow cleat, and midship cleats, with bezels. These were the push button popup Attwoods. I later added the new factory Nordic logo, pull up cleats in bezels to match the Attwoods, in the factory recesses. Now, I can hang fenders off several places and tie off to my friends boats without leaving the cockpit.
Even though they don't match exactly, they are functional, and are fairly low and streamlined.
The late model boats have a much better, ABYC type (bow/midship/stern) setup.
Regards,
Steve