bow rollers

[nalani]

when we purchased our boat the owner did not provide any of the techincal information regarding the boat systems or construction. I am curious how we find out what load our bow roller is designed for? the base is recessed in the bow and the roller is set upon it. in comparison to other boats it does not look as strong. Sorry not sure what the exact terms are!

[Hud3]

The Moody 46 is a nice boat--congratulations! I'm sure the bow roller can handle any appropriate ground tackle that you want to use.

Regarding technical info about the boat, try contacting the builder. I know that the builder of our boat, Island Packet Yachts, will send new second owners an Owner's Manual on request. Maybe Moody will do that for you.

[Pblais]

I am curious how we find out what load our bow roller is designed for?

If you can post a link to a picture or upload to your Cruisers Forum photo gallery we can at least take a look. Just offhand if it's a Moody 46 it should be able to hanlde a large load. The roller does not actually carry a huge load under any normal situation unless you start ramming things.

[nalani]

i have the pictures but i can not figure out how to insert them. they are too big to upload to pictures. Anyway you could give me your email address's and i could email them to you?

[Pblais]

If up go to Paint.NET - Free Software for Digital Photo Editing you can download a great free application that you can resize the pictures small enough to up load. It's as nice a many graphics applications that cost a lot of money. You just have to load the Microsft .NET Framework to run it.

[nalani]

[nalani]

[nalani]

[svHyLyte]

Based upon you photos, your bow roller is more than adequate to carry the loads of your ground tackle. Note, however, that, aside from fairly calm conditions, most bow rollers are not intended to carry the loads an anchor rode may be subjected to but simply to ease the recovery of the ground tackle without damage. Accordingly, it is wise to rig a snubbing line lead from a deck cleat, through a fairlead or hause pipe and secured to the anchor rode with a chain hook or rolling hitch. Ideally one would want a snubber on each side of the bow as a bridal. The rode is then freed to run until the strain is taken up by the snubbers and sufficient chain has released to form a loop below the water's surface between the bow and the point at which the snubbers are secured to the rode. The weight of this loop acts somewhat like a kellet, to minimize shock loads as a strain is taken on the rode.

Cheers,

s/v HyLyte

[nalani]

thanks so much for your help. I have another question. I want to carry two anchors on this roller. it is set up for two but i am not sure that two will fit. is it a good idea to extend the bow spirit to do that? I want to get a rocna so i am not sure that it will fit. Another stupid question: the secondary anchor - it should have the ability to fit to the windlass - so how do i do that?

[svHyLyte]

I don't understand why you would want two anchors rigged in the bow rollers. One, yes, so that you have one ready to let go in the event of an emergency, but two would serve no useful purpose and just add weight out where it will do no particular good. If you choose to mount a Rockna as a primary anchor, that should serve for most all situations. Rather than keeping what appears to be a Delta on the bow as well, I'd suggest an anchor suitable for different bottom conditions such as a Fortress FX-23 or 37 that can be stored in the starboard anchore locker but be readied for deployment quickly if the Rockna or Delta was unsuitable. (Frankly, for where you're located and likely to sail, at least initially,--say the Bahamas--the exisitng Delta and a Fortress would be quite sufficient.)

Assuming your yacht is set up like most Moody 46's, the location of the windlass on your port foredeck; and, the fact that your windlass utilizes an integral chainpipe, makes pulling a rode from your starboard bow roller problematic unless you have a capstan version of the typical windless. With a capstan, you would be able to haul in rope rode, albeit with some difficulty.

Frankly, given you have chain on your port side, it might be best to have rope rode with only a modest amount of chain--say 15 to 20 feet--on your starboard side. If so--and you lead your starboard rode through a chainstopper--you should have little difficulty recovering your rode by hand as you will only be dealing with modest weight, but you could also lead the rode to a spare winch on your mast or cabintop and simply use that rather than a windlass. While that may sound counter intuitive, remember that your windlass is not intended to pull the yacht up to you anchor, but simply to recover the rode as you motor or sail up to your anchor. With a lot of chain that can be a chore by hand but no so rope rode. And, with a chain stopper, you can pull the chain up in lifts once you get to that. On our boat even my 5' tall, 105#, wife can recover our light weight anchor and rode with little difficulty (tho' I do not let her do so!)

Cheers,

s/v HyLyte