The foredeck is very much a long-term Work In Progress. But rather than repeatedly posting my ideas in various threads, I thought I'd collect them all here. (I see that some of these photos are dated five years ago!)
One problem with the E29 is that it seems there was never any real provision made for anchoring it - I guess it was just supposed to cruise from marina dock to marina dock in Southern California. Or maybe a bucket full of ground tackle stored in the sail locker was thought to be sufficient. There is a big "anchor locker" in the bow, accessed through the V-berth, but the only access from the deck was a 3" cowled vent. The PO's of my boat hung a Danforth anchor off the bow pulpit and stuffed the (undersized) rode down through the vent hole. Rope doesn't really like to go around corners like that. (This is extremely tedious and slow, by the way. And if you leave it like that, rain water runs down the rode and into the boat and fills up the bow locker forward of the crash bulkhead.)
A parallel problem is that all the deck hardware was apparently installed before the deck was joined to the hull, and there is no physical way to reach most of it from the inside. (A small child or trained monkey that is good with tools and capable of worming into small spaces might be a good thing to have on board.) None of that hardware was potted properly, all of it was in need of rebedding after >40 years, and none of it ever had more for a backing plate than a 1/2" washer. (!!!)
Then there is the question of rigging. There is a lot going on up at the pointy end of the boat. I replaced the forestay with a roller-furler. There is some hardware for symmetrical spinnaker flying, which I haven't done much with. I'd like to fly an asymmetrical some day, and a sprit to get the tack out ahead of the pulpit (and furler drum) might be needed. And I'd like to experiment with a removable inner forestay and staysail/storm sail, although I realize that the benefits on this rig might be minimal. But that's a whole separate story.
The first thing I needed was a plan as to how everything might fit together in this crowded little space. I doodled a few plans with a permanent bowsprit with an integrated anchor roller, but eventually decided that the most minimal plan was best. Especially since anything that lengthened the boat would get me kicked out of my slip. I managed to find a couple of inexpensive rollers that were only 2" wide that made this plan work.
Well, there are some issues with this - for one thing I planned on 150 feet of 1/4" G4 chain as primary rode - that's about 112 lbs. up in the bow of the boat. Which is a significant amount for a boat this small. Really it should be stowed below the waterline and in the middle of the boat. One could pull it back to the first locker to make a passage. There is a drain tube from the factory that connects the anchor locker to the first locker. It could be enlarged to pass chain. Or stopped up and an overboard drain installed. (If needed, one could just disconnect the chain and pull it from one locker to the next. Or all the way to the bilge.) A bit more on this below.
The first thing I did was replace the 3" vent with an 8" deck plate. This allowed me to reach and rehab the hardware up there. At the same time, I replaced the deck-level running lights with new LED running lights on the pulpit. I'd previously replaced the old forestay with a new one inside a roller-furler (Huh. Thought there was an old blog entry on that. If so it disappeared...) So I removed the now-unused tack fitting and installed a narrow bow roller to one side of the chainplate. (Things are so tight up front that the aft-most bolt of the roller also replaces the forward-most bolt of the pulpit foot, with an intervening spacer.) The next project was installing the windlass and chain stopper. It's possible I went too cheap here, with an Anchorlift "Barracuda" aluminum windlass that was gathering dust in a local consignment store but had never been installed. It had a dual chain/rope gypsy but as it turns out it was a metric sized one and I had to send away for an "inch" sized gypsy that cost almost as much as the windlass. Works so far, but I haven't yet been in a situation where I'm anchoring day in and day out. And I replaced the danforth anchor with a Lewmar claw that now nests neatly on the bow. From the front, or port side, it's almost invisible.
Will repaint the deck once I'm done messing it up! FWIW, I put the main relay inside the V-berth locker. I calculated that for this size boat and windlass, a run of 4-gauge wire from the main battery bank was the best solution. The main switch is just inside the companionway where the helmsman can reach it and (with minor contortions) still see the bow. Not the only possible place for it. In lieu of the classic bow foot-switches, I picked up an inexpensive imported remote control unit that I can put in my pocket or on a lanyard or it snaps into a wall bracket. (Comes with two remotes. One could be mounted e.g. inside the dodger.) Its relay piggy-backs onto the main relay, so I can winch away from anywhere.
At this point, I had 200 feet of 1/2" nylon three-strand spliced to 15 feet of chain as a rode. I feel pretty good about the holding power of this setup - we (ahem) once used it to drag the boat off a sandbar with the assistance of the primary winches and the engine. Problem: the 3-strand is pretty stiff and doesn't like to fall neatly into the space provided. Especially the top half of it. Another way of looking at it is that the fall into the chain locker isn't long enough. But as stiff as it is, I think this rope would make mischief no matter how deep the well. Slack develops and one gets hockles that jam the windlass. Basically you have to hand-tail it as it comes up to prevent these jams. Unless you have a very light touch on the windlass control, the jam will pop the circuit breaker, which requires a scramble down to the panel to reset it before you can resume fishing up the anchor.
In contrast, the chain feeds through and drops straight down into the pile with no problem. I've heard that other types of rope rodes feed and flake better than nylon 3-strand, but I don't have any experience with them. What the windlass wants is some kind of rope that will "hang limp," and not get rigor mortis like the 3-strand. (The installation process involves the tedious carving away and re-sealing of the underside of the deck to make a smooth entry for the rope. Big point in favor of a horizontal windlass!) There was also an issue with the chain-rope splice. It wouldn't feed through the windlass, so I had to re-splice it with a "bucket splice." That seems a little sketchy to me. So anyhow, now the primary rode is 150 feet of 1/4" G4 chain and the secondary is 200 feet of 1/2" nylon three-strand plus 15' of chain. I could use the old rode to set the old danforth as a second anchor or stern anchor, or link the two together if extreme scope were needed.
The magic number "300 feet" of chain is often bandied about in cruising guides, though I doubt that most people use that much very often. 150 feet was the most weight I felt comfortable with based on "gut feeling" but also happens to add up (with the anchor) to near the maximum weight specification of the windlass and happens to fill the locker to just below the rim of the v-berth door. So it must be the perfect amount. Chain pile vs rope pile (after rope had "settled" for several days.)
Next steps: Install baffles as shown in the drawing above - I have some fiberglass gratings that ought to work well for that. OR work on the removable bowsprit. OR work on reinforcing the bulkhead and installing inner forestay hardware. BUT really, I guess the next thing is installing some lifeline netting up there because my four-footed bowman has been scrambling around on the bow during tacks and doesn't have a "hand" to grab onto the rail.
One problem with the E29 is that it seems there was never any real provision made for anchoring it - I guess it was just supposed to cruise from marina dock to marina dock in Southern California. Or maybe a bucket full of ground tackle stored in the sail locker was thought to be sufficient. There is a big "anchor locker" in the bow, accessed through the V-berth, but the only access from the deck was a 3" cowled vent. The PO's of my boat hung a Danforth anchor off the bow pulpit and stuffed the (undersized) rode down through the vent hole. Rope doesn't really like to go around corners like that. (This is extremely tedious and slow, by the way. And if you leave it like that, rain water runs down the rode and into the boat and fills up the bow locker forward of the crash bulkhead.)
A parallel problem is that all the deck hardware was apparently installed before the deck was joined to the hull, and there is no physical way to reach most of it from the inside. (A small child or trained monkey that is good with tools and capable of worming into small spaces might be a good thing to have on board.) None of that hardware was potted properly, all of it was in need of rebedding after >40 years, and none of it ever had more for a backing plate than a 1/2" washer. (!!!)
Then there is the question of rigging. There is a lot going on up at the pointy end of the boat. I replaced the forestay with a roller-furler. There is some hardware for symmetrical spinnaker flying, which I haven't done much with. I'd like to fly an asymmetrical some day, and a sprit to get the tack out ahead of the pulpit (and furler drum) might be needed. And I'd like to experiment with a removable inner forestay and staysail/storm sail, although I realize that the benefits on this rig might be minimal. But that's a whole separate story.
The first thing I needed was a plan as to how everything might fit together in this crowded little space. I doodled a few plans with a permanent bowsprit with an integrated anchor roller, but eventually decided that the most minimal plan was best. Especially since anything that lengthened the boat would get me kicked out of my slip. I managed to find a couple of inexpensive rollers that were only 2" wide that made this plan work.
Well, there are some issues with this - for one thing I planned on 150 feet of 1/4" G4 chain as primary rode - that's about 112 lbs. up in the bow of the boat. Which is a significant amount for a boat this small. Really it should be stowed below the waterline and in the middle of the boat. One could pull it back to the first locker to make a passage. There is a drain tube from the factory that connects the anchor locker to the first locker. It could be enlarged to pass chain. Or stopped up and an overboard drain installed. (If needed, one could just disconnect the chain and pull it from one locker to the next. Or all the way to the bilge.) A bit more on this below.
The first thing I did was replace the 3" vent with an 8" deck plate. This allowed me to reach and rehab the hardware up there. At the same time, I replaced the deck-level running lights with new LED running lights on the pulpit. I'd previously replaced the old forestay with a new one inside a roller-furler (Huh. Thought there was an old blog entry on that. If so it disappeared...) So I removed the now-unused tack fitting and installed a narrow bow roller to one side of the chainplate. (Things are so tight up front that the aft-most bolt of the roller also replaces the forward-most bolt of the pulpit foot, with an intervening spacer.) The next project was installing the windlass and chain stopper. It's possible I went too cheap here, with an Anchorlift "Barracuda" aluminum windlass that was gathering dust in a local consignment store but had never been installed. It had a dual chain/rope gypsy but as it turns out it was a metric sized one and I had to send away for an "inch" sized gypsy that cost almost as much as the windlass. Works so far, but I haven't yet been in a situation where I'm anchoring day in and day out. And I replaced the danforth anchor with a Lewmar claw that now nests neatly on the bow. From the front, or port side, it's almost invisible.
Will repaint the deck once I'm done messing it up! FWIW, I put the main relay inside the V-berth locker. I calculated that for this size boat and windlass, a run of 4-gauge wire from the main battery bank was the best solution. The main switch is just inside the companionway where the helmsman can reach it and (with minor contortions) still see the bow. Not the only possible place for it. In lieu of the classic bow foot-switches, I picked up an inexpensive imported remote control unit that I can put in my pocket or on a lanyard or it snaps into a wall bracket. (Comes with two remotes. One could be mounted e.g. inside the dodger.) Its relay piggy-backs onto the main relay, so I can winch away from anywhere.
At this point, I had 200 feet of 1/2" nylon three-strand spliced to 15 feet of chain as a rode. I feel pretty good about the holding power of this setup - we (ahem) once used it to drag the boat off a sandbar with the assistance of the primary winches and the engine. Problem: the 3-strand is pretty stiff and doesn't like to fall neatly into the space provided. Especially the top half of it. Another way of looking at it is that the fall into the chain locker isn't long enough. But as stiff as it is, I think this rope would make mischief no matter how deep the well. Slack develops and one gets hockles that jam the windlass. Basically you have to hand-tail it as it comes up to prevent these jams. Unless you have a very light touch on the windlass control, the jam will pop the circuit breaker, which requires a scramble down to the panel to reset it before you can resume fishing up the anchor.
In contrast, the chain feeds through and drops straight down into the pile with no problem. I've heard that other types of rope rodes feed and flake better than nylon 3-strand, but I don't have any experience with them. What the windlass wants is some kind of rope that will "hang limp," and not get rigor mortis like the 3-strand. (The installation process involves the tedious carving away and re-sealing of the underside of the deck to make a smooth entry for the rope. Big point in favor of a horizontal windlass!) There was also an issue with the chain-rope splice. It wouldn't feed through the windlass, so I had to re-splice it with a "bucket splice." That seems a little sketchy to me. So anyhow, now the primary rode is 150 feet of 1/4" G4 chain and the secondary is 200 feet of 1/2" nylon three-strand plus 15' of chain. I could use the old rode to set the old danforth as a second anchor or stern anchor, or link the two together if extreme scope were needed.
The magic number "300 feet" of chain is often bandied about in cruising guides, though I doubt that most people use that much very often. 150 feet was the most weight I felt comfortable with based on "gut feeling" but also happens to add up (with the anchor) to near the maximum weight specification of the windlass and happens to fill the locker to just below the rim of the v-berth door. So it must be the perfect amount. Chain pile vs rope pile (after rope had "settled" for several days.)
Next steps: Install baffles as shown in the drawing above - I have some fiberglass gratings that ought to work well for that. OR work on the removable bowsprit. OR work on reinforcing the bulkhead and installing inner forestay hardware. BUT really, I guess the next thing is installing some lifeline netting up there because my four-footed bowman has been scrambling around on the bow during tacks and doesn't have a "hand" to grab onto the rail.
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