In my opinion (IMHO for the youngsters among us ☺), most boats are equipped with cleats that are too small. My rule of thumb for cleats and anchors is to have the largest that I, and the boat can handle.... To me 6" cleats on a 23 foot boat are way too small. (at least 8" or 10" would be my preference). With smaller cleats, much of the time you can barely tie two lines on the same cleat unless you use undersized lines, and if you travel on the boat and tie up at a variety of docks, there are times you will wish you had MORE cleats, and LARGER cleats..... BUT, for people who only trailer their boats, and use the cleats to tie a couple lines to the dock at the ramp for a few minutes while backing in the truck, the cleat-sized is almost immaterial. (Who cares, except for the next person who buys your boat!) If you plan to keep your boat at a dock, in the water, long-term, you need large cleats, to accommodate larger dock lines, and cleats that will accommodate more than one dock line. When I've kept boats at docks (Which I've done for well over 35 years) I used two large bow lines, four spring lines, and two crossed stern lines. (Tripled that during 'storms')... One of the boats had only two mid-ship cleats, requiring I have at least two lines on each cleat. These were 12" and 14" cleats, and they were barley large enough to do the job at times..... I didn't mean to ramble on like this.... In short, Go Bigger Than 6" on a 23' boat.
