Taking off some hardware is probably not going to happen. As you probably know, most of it is backed up with nuts, not screwed into wood so it requires it to be held on one side and removed from another. That requires 2 people, and on the rare occasions I have company, I dont want to ask them to help on my boat, not to mention the cleats up under the bow would be tough but not impossible. I did manage to tighten up the bow ring with a few extentions on my ratchet.