Sailing: The art of getting wet and becoming ill while slowly going nowhere at great expense.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Bow Roller Platform


So my two bow rollers arrived after much debate (internal) on which two styles to get. I know that I will have different ground tackle requirements for lake sailing vs ocean sailing so I wanted a combination of rollers that could accommodate fluke style, plow style and claw style anchors in different combinations. The two Lewmar rollers I have now seem to fit the best and will give me a good balance for primary and secondary anchoring.
The new platform has been formed from a nice piece of Sapele that I finally committed to cutting after exhaustive cardboard template work and rework. First it had to fit the boat in size, scale and proportion. Then it had to fit in the for-triangle between two line chocks and over the for-stay bracket. When the rollers arrived it then had to be reworked to accommodate them and finally they had to be positioned so the blades on the two different anchors could store and deploy side by side in harmony.
The mounting will be finalized this week with a custom 3/8" aluminum backing plate, then 5 coats of varnish and coring and sealing the mounting holes. Once that is done then an anchor chain pipe installed through the deck to the for-peak chain locker. The rest of this past week was spent making all the custom aluminum backing plates for the life line stanchions. It has been too hot to be in the boat finishing up the galley work.

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