For unknown reasons, the boats I use and instruct on have handmade wooden cleats attached with two fairly modest screws each. These regularly loosen up. There's some play wiggling of the cleats after a while. On the other hand, they don't hold the lines incredibly well, either! I'll admit these look right. The cleats are about 6 or 8" long, maybe 1 1/4" thick. The boats are under 20 ft sailboats. They ride at the dock all the time and get regular mild wakes, and sometimes a larger wake. Typical for a no-wake zone.

I'm lobbying for modern cleats. But for the moment, I'd like to get them tight and have them stay that way.

The decks are 3/8" ply with glass-epoxy on each side. The cleats look like oak. The machine screws enter the wood cleat without washers. On the other side there are modest washers and nylock nuts. Suggestions? I have a mild concern of blowing up the cleats with too much pressure.

I've considered epoxy saturating the holes. Drilling larger holes and using larger machine screws, perhaps with an even larger hole allowing a slightly oversized washer and a serrated lock washer on top. On the underside, perhaps fender washer, stiff oversize washer, lock washer, and fresh nylock nut. But I don't know!

Suggestions?