As at December 8th 2010

Chart table, freezer left, refrigerator right, instrument panel framed for pc monitor. AIS and VHF.

 

On port side of sail locker one gallon fresh flush tank, holding tank and water maker pre-filters.

Bowsprit and main deck in way of sprit heel and sampson post.

 

Anchor Rollers

 The roller assembly I first bought was designed for a reefable bowsprit. Too big and too heavy.  I cut a 6 inch piece off the tail to bolt to the bow.

The plate will extend outboard to capture each roller. The slots in each roller cheek engages the  plate thereby fixing the angle so the Rocna anchor will ride below the bow sprit. The tail end of each PTF roller had to be trimmed to match up with the angle of the bow and the cover board was planed down so the gammon iron position did not change. 

The anchor roller bails would be fine for an all chain rode but the sharp edges will chafe through anything else.

Gammon iron and rollers.

Plate through bolted to bow. 

The rollers dry fitted on plate.



Sprit heel through bolts deck and stainless steel backing plate.

Fore Deck

Just aft of  the stem a bronze plate is attached to the bow with 6 ea. 1/2 inch machine screws.  The sampson post / sprit heal will be shimed and faired so the bowsprit will set at the correct angle.

The new Muir windlass will install a foot further forward than the ABI manual footprint.

The gamon iron is not installed.  The anchor roller cheeks are slotted to fit on the plate fixing the angle so both anchors look down but stow without touching the hull.

Rollers and gammon iron.

Bowsprit heal installed on butt end.   Dimensions are 5 inch by 5 inch to just past rollers then 4 7/8 inch diameter tapering to 3 3/4.  The length is 12 ft 10 in overall; 8 ft 10 inches from forestay on gammon iron bail to headstay at cranze iron.

More Anchor Talk

Steve Dashew makes an interesting case for mult-plait polyester instead of nylon. The 5/8 inch breaking strength is 12,200 and at 30% of breaking the working load limit is 3600 pounds. The polyester holds its full strength when wet, has more abrasion resistance and stretches less than nylon. The 8 plait in nylon is readily available but in polyester it cannot be found in diameters under one inch in the US. It looks like Yale used to make it but it is not on their website now.  Gleistein in Germany and Trem in Italy have it in 16mm.

Secondary Anchor

I have already talked about the configuration of my primary anchor and rode in a previous entry, but what about the back-up? The secondary anchor system serves as an extra in case the primary fails or is lost. And if the main anchor system failed as a result of overpowering wind and wave forces the secondary will have to be as strong as the first. Otherwise it will have no chance of success and by deploying it I will only be sentencing it to the same fate as the primary.

Holding Power - Primary Anchor

From the bow there will be two anchors.  The primary will be the hoss.... a Rocna Model 20 44 lb anchor on 60 ft (maybe 75) of 5/16" G4 HT chain spliced to 200 ft of 5/8" polyester eight-plaite line. The theory being there would typically be some rode out, thus eliminating the need to rig a separate snubber line. On a long scope, say 7 to 1 in 12 to 35 feet of water there would be enough rode out to absorb shock  but unlike nylon not so elastic as to behave like a bungee cord in a strong blow. The rode would be secured to the sampson posts not a chain stopper. On a short scope in 10 to 20 feet of water, the boat would lie to all chain, or almost all chain, with a nylon snubber. The chain will stow down low in the bottom of the sail locker (where many BCC owners install a holding tank) to keep as much of the weight off the bow as possible.

Anchor Windlass

The plan is to replace the teak sampson posts with deck mounted bronze sprit gammoning iron and sprit heel tie down by Port Townsend to open up chain locker access below decks. The ABI manual windlass will be replaced with a Muir Atlantic 1000 bronze vertical electric windlass with capstan and cockpit remote.

I am rethinking the third battery bank dedicated to windlass idea based on a West Marine advisory I recently read :

“Though some experts may disagree, we believe that the best way to power a windlass is from the existing house battery bank, rather than from a separate battery in the bow. We suggest you use your boat's "house" battery to power your windlass installation. To limit voltage drop and ensure that the windlass operates at full capacity, cabling for the power circuit must be of the correct size for the amperage draw of the windlass. Not only does a dedicated battery add to the already appreciable weight of the windlass, anchor and rode, it presents charging and maintenance difficulties. The weight and cost savings of using short cables between the battery and the windlass, instead of long ones from the windlass to the house battery bank (which is presumably far away), is offset by the weight and cost of cables necessary to charge a bow battery. Charging cables must be sized to handle any potential charging load. This is liable to be less than the maximum windlass draw, but could still be 50-100 amps, so the cable size would be almost as large as those required to power the windlass from the house bank. In addition, charging a battery over a long distance can involve large amounts of current flow for an extended period of time (assuming a heavily discharged battery), which in turn could lead to a voltage drop, heat build-up, and/or a large electromagnetic field. In contrast, a windlass draws current in short bursts, so the cables supplying it will not be under continuous use.”