Anchor Roller Puzzle....

[badey0015]

Hi. Just wondered if anyone had any bright ideas about mounting an anchor roller to the bow of the whiting 26" 1/4 I have just purchased. She use to be kept in a marina, and occasionally anchored from the bowsprit.

I'm going to keep her on a mooring so need a decent anchor roller on the front. The pulpit and forestay make doing this quite difficult as you can see from the photo. The prod quite easily removable.

My ideas:

1) Modify the pulpit to mount a roller between the stainless steel tubes as they approach the deck. Would this be strong enough?

2) Moor her with some sort of bridle. Could mount bow chocks and make a bridle which then goes onto the mooring. Might make it much neater??

Take a look at the picture below. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[jacob30]

Mount cleats and use a bridle anchor snubber.

[Reefmagnet]

x2 with a bridle. I have a Vega which is not quite as fussy at the pointy end as your boat, but never came with a bow roller as standard. It uses fairleads and a cleat to allow anchoring via a bridle. Having said that, I've added a custom bow roller - which also replaced the original chainplate/pulpit rail mount - for anchoring and may use that also for the swing mooring - haven't quite decided yet. I've also seen some boats modified using an off the shelf bow roller assembly fastened to a length of wood that is in turn mounted to the deck. Fairly simple and effective, but might be a bit impractical on your boat.

Here's my setup:

[Nicholson58]

Marine Part Depot

try here - you might find a gem you can use.

[ozskipper]

Just run through a fairlead or two. (mounted on each side) With a bollard centered on the foredeck. Its only a 26footer. You dont need a roller if you are manually raising the pick.

If you shorten that timber toerail by three inches a side, you will easily have enough room for the fairleads. Just remember to re-inforce the bollard

http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j0...ad-MWS101-.jpg

[badey0015]

Thankyou - very helpful. There are already port/starboard bow cleats about 3" aft of the bow. There is no cleat in the midline of the bow.

It sounds like a bridle is the way to go. I've read around of ways to attach this to the rode (or mooring line in this case) - but usually as a snubber - with a prussick knot. This system will have to be safe for long term mooring on a swing mooring.

So if I add the bow chocks it will be something similar to this picture. Except the loose mooring line will have to go to a port/starboard bow cleat as well (through the middle of the pulpit) - unless I put in another midline cleat/bollard? Is this worth doing? Would a prussick knot do the job for the long term in terms off attaching the bridle to the mooring line?

Cheers.

[Minggat]

Bow rollers and bridles are different purpose items. A bow roller is an aid to dropping raising an anchor. A bridle does nothing in that department.

If you're Ok with doing without a roller that's one thing. But a bridle instead of a roller is not clear logic to me.

[badey0015]

I don't understand what you are saying?

At the end of the day - I need a way of holding the boat onto a swing mooring safely. This means securely connecting bow cleats to the mooring. As there is no anchor roller, fairlead or midline bow cleat to guide the line over the middle of the bow - I've been wondering about a bridle from the port / starboard bow cleats. The elternative would be to install an anchor roller, or fairlead, and a midline bow cleat - all of which mean drilling more holes in the deck which i'd like to avoid.

I can also anchor from the prod - leading the anchor rode through a block on the prod - but would only feel comfortable doing this in light weather, definitely not from the swing mooring.

[ozskipper]

You dont need a bow roller. Only bigger boats and boats with anchor winches do.

Fairlead each side. Bridle goes side to side and centermounted cleat/bollard on foredeck. Or attach mooring pendant via one of the fairleads directly to the Mooing.

[limejucer]

How much damage could a chain do to unprotected fiberglass. will the roller protect it, or would a snubber prevent damage?

[badey0015]

Thankyou for your thoughts. I'm going to install 2 large bow chocks to protect the corner of the deck join, i'll take the toerail back about 2 inches. For these to be mounted on the edge of the deck I think they will have to be screwed in - a backing plate wouldn't go.

I'll also install a midline bow mooring cleat - this will take the mooring pendent loop (loose). I could attach the bridle to the mooring pendent with a rolling hitch. The mooring pendent would come up over the pulpit (see the original photo) which would act as a sort of 'fairlead'. Though this would be a backup and not under any tension unless the bridle failed.

Technicalities:

1) Should I use a bollard or a mooring cleat? Which size? What size backing plate?

2) How should I connnect the bridle to the mooring pendent? Is a rolling hitch adequate? In some respects it would all be simpler I didn't bother with the centremount cleat and just connected the bridle to the mooring pendent loop - with no backup. Is this foolish? Both side bow cleates are pretty solid with decent backing plates.

[badey0015]

Better idea:

Skip the centremount cleat - run a backup line from the mooring pendent, through the low point of the pulpit, to the base of the mast. That should be pretty infallable? The bridle will take the load guided by the fairleads i'll fit.

[savoir]

You don't need either a bow roller, snubber or any form of cleat or bollard on the foredeck. There is a simpler way to moor a small race boat that doesn't really benefit from all that clutter on the foredeck.

Your boat has a toe rail so fairleads like the ones shown in post #3 above should be mounted about a foot aft of the bow to lead the mooring ropes over the rail. Attach two separate ropes made from 3 strand silver to the mooring ball with an eye splice at the outer end of each. Fit a tube of plastic about 1 foot long around each and adjust so that it covers the lines at the point they pass through the fairleads. These are just chafe limiters.

If there is already a cleat on the foredeck use it by all means but it seems like there isn't. In that case tie the mooring lines to the mast via the eye splices with something stretchy like 3 strand nylon. I suggest tying the two independently so that you have a backup in the event of breakage.

I moored an Etchells this way for years.

[badey0015]

Brilliant. Thankyou : )