So we are here for part of half term, arrived on Thursday evening and have had one of our sons staying with us for a couple of nights. So we took some time off (as Jane is still recovering from Laryngitis she needed it).
Then this afternoon we did a full tidy up of all the tools and parts stored in the forecabin, clearly one of the more exciting jobs on the list.
I also started mocking up an extension to the bow roller to support our 30kg SPADE anchor. The main criteria are:
- anchor must not hit the bow when being raised or lowered
- anchor must end up firmly locked in place so that it doesn’t get moved by waves
- anchor must fall freely without human intervention when the windlass lets the chain out
- attachment points for the yankee continuous line furler and the the forestay must be far enough apart (forestay approx 100mm in front of the yankee)
- anchor and chain must be prevented from ever touching the dyneema rigging
This is what I have so far (shuttering ply mock-up of one side, plus 200mm roller and actual anchor shape)
The rather large “hump” is for a middle roller which is to make sure the anchor and chain can’t go high enough to chafe the dyneema. I’m not sure we need it, if we do, the roller could be quite a small diameter.
The main fluke of the anchor doesn’t touch the bottom of the box roller, instead I plan to have an adjustable rubber pad bolted on. That should allow the whole thing to be easily adapted to other anchors.
The base extends aft quite a lot further. This will allow it to be through bolted to the deck, once I have reduced the size of the opening locker lid. It will also allow a pin to be put in through the eye in the anchor shank (it is big enough for the shackle and a pin) to lock it in place. I’ll also fit a chain stopper so that the pull of the anchor never has to be held by the windlass (it damages them).
We still need to think about how to use what was the port roller as we will want to use that when using a mooring ball and don’t want the line to rub against the anchor.
To attach the dyneema stays my plan is to use stainless steel strops bolted in the centre between the port and starboard roller sides. The forestay one will have a toggle at the top so one of my FR4 tangs can be used for a dyneema lashing to a low friction ring. The furler can be directly pinned to the toggle.
I have more, used, shuttering ply at home so will complete the mock-up on another visit.
Getting the bow roller right is essential to being able to reorganise the foredeck for the windlass and inner forestay.
Sustainable Sailing 