CONTINUOUSWAVE

Q1: how can the cleats on a 2004 ALERT 17 be replaced by folding cleats?

ASIDE: I am going to do a lot of fly fishing on the boat.

Typically a cleat on any Boston Whaler boat will have been located in an area of the deck or hull where there is embedded reinforcement in the Unibond hull, or the cleat can be through-bolted and have a backing plate.

The typical folding cleat requires that the vertical posts that form the cleat must be able to descend into the deck to allow the horn of the cleat to become flush with the deck or the surround of the cleat assembly. This means that you must have sufficient area BELOW the deck to drill deep holes into the hull to permit the cleat to descend into.

Whether or not this is practical on a particular boat, in this case your ALERT 17, will depend on the present location of the cleats and how much space exists in the hull below that location. Also, the mounting fasteners for the new cleat must also land into the reinforced embedded material in the hull.

Or, you can use a surface-mounting style of folding cleat, which will not require any deep holes to be drilled for mounting. For example, see

Whitecap Folding Cleat - 6745
https://defender.com/en_us/whitecap-folding-cleat-6745?utm_id=147314937780

As long as the above example of a folding cleat will fit and its mounting screws will land in the reinforced area embedded in the hull, or you can use through bolts and a backing plate, the installation of this type cleat should be relatively easy.

("Oh, easy for Leonardo!" -- Dylan Thomas in his short story, "A Child's Christmas in Wales" referring to assembly of toys on Christmas Eve.)

Whitecap Folding Cleat - 6745
https://defender.com/en_us/whitecap-fol ... 7314937780

As long as the above example of a folding cleat will fit and its mounting screws will land in the reinforced area embedded in the hull, or you can use through bolts and a backing plate, the installation of this type cleat should be relatively easy.

These look perfect! Thank you! I have seen charts of where there are reinforced locations on whalers. Do you know where to get one for a 2004 Alert? Or any information on an 17 Alert from that year?

Re drawings showing embedded reinforcement locations on a 2004 ALERT 17 hull:

An ALERT 17 hull would have been made by the Commercial and Government Products division of Boston Whaler, which began as a separate part of Boston Whaler in 1983. In 2001 that operation became reorganized as Brunswick Commercial and Government boats.

https://www.brunswickcgp.com/

I would expect that the general location of embedded reinforcements would be similar to the recreational 17-foot hull. You can get a drawing for those hulls from the REFERENCE article at

https://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/16-17/

https://continuouswave.com/whaler/refer ... 0x743.jpeg

The embedded material used in a commercial hull might be aluminum or phenolic board, and neither would take a self-tapping wood screw very well, however both can easily be tapped and threaded for a machine screw fastener.