The addition of a Bulwagga anchor and the general hassle of manually pulling up an anchor suggested adding a bow platform on which to mount an anchor roller.
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| The first step was making a prototype out of cardboard to get the dimension correct. The cutout is for the forestay attachment. |
The platform is made out of two pieces of 3/4 exterior plywood glued together with expoxy resin. The cutoff was made with a jigsaw and all corners rounded with a router. Oversize holes for the mounting hardware on the platform and for mounting the platform on the deck were drilled and filled with resin.
 | A layer of thickened resin is used to get the platform to sit securely on the slightly curved deck, I covered the deck with plastic wrap, put the thickened resin in place, and pushed the platform down on top. The photo shows the removed platform. The two smaller clumps are where the forward mounting bolts go. |
 | The next step was a couple layers of resin over the entire platform. |
The platform was then painted with a few layers of topside paint. It should have taken two, but this was my first experience with two part linear polyurethane paint and I had a bad coat or two. It took some experimenting to figure out how to effectively mix very small batches of the stuff. The hardware was then bolted to the platform. This included the bow roller, a chain stopper for the roller, and the two chocks that were previously bolted to the deck.
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Holes were then drilled down through the deck into the chain locker. The holes were surrounded by polysulfide and bolted down. Two strips of the exterior plywood are used as a backing and the bolts secured with fender washers. |
The platform was designed and built with the mast down. The main deficiency is the location of the chain stopper and bow roller. The locking lever on the chain stopper doesn't swing open all the way because it runs into the drum of the genoa furler. Additionally, the anchor rode has to run under the furling line, which limits the angle on which I can pull on the rode. 20/20 hindsight suggest putting the chain stopper farther outboard and put both roller and chain stopper on the port side would have been better.
This year I sealed some cracks along the edges of the wood with more epxoy and repainted. The port cleat, which the mooring pennant goes through, was replaced with a heftier model. After some thought, I ended up leaving the chain stopper on the starboard side. Moving it to port would interfere with the mooring line and I moor the boat a heck of a lot more often than I anchor.