Now with the epoxy cured overnight, I was ready for the final anchor roller installation.  I lined up the roller assembly and support block, and dropped in four of the five bolts, just allowing them to rest on the deck; this helped hold the block in alignment with the roller itself.  I carefully lined up the whole thing with my various reference marks on the deck and elsewhere, then, with a 3/8″ bit, I drilled one hole all the way through the deck, and inserted a bolt to pin things.

Next, I removed one of the remaining four bolts and, after double-checking the alignment, drilled a second hole all the way through the deck, which pinned the assembly firmly and allowed me to more easily drill the remaining holes, first marking them by lightly drilling through the roller and block, then removing the assembly to finish the drilling through the deck.

Afterwards, I milled small countersinks on each hole at deck level, allowing additional room for sealant at each hole.  The drill spoils were all epoxy, meaning all the overfilled holes lined up as expected and desired.

Next, I dry-fit the support block and all the bolts, and from inside the chainlocker test-fit the backing plate.  I’d already made a small modification by relieving part of the underside to clear some of the nuts securing the adjacent hawsepipe, but found I had to trim the forward end, where it angled into the side of the hull, just a bit for clearance before the backing plate would fit.

Back on deck, I made final preparations for the installation, setting up required tools and supplies, and adding some masking tape to increase coverage for deck protection.  Then, I heavily applied black sealant–chosen because of the use of black sealant throughout the rest of the boat, and especially on the deck seams–to the deck before pressing the support block into position.  Then, I applied more sealant atop the block and also to the stem plate and corner of the starboard chock, on which the roller itself also bore, and installed the roller and five bolts.  I pressed this all down as much as possible, but tightening the bolts from beneath would really bring things home.

Now working from the chainlocker, I installed the backing plate and nuts, lockwashers, and fender washers on all the bolts, tightening them all securely.  If the bolt spun at all, I used locking pliers on the exposed threads to hold it while working the nut with a ratcheting box end wrench.  This allowed me to relatively easily complete all the work alone.

With all the bolts securely tightened, I returned to the deck and was happy to see lots of good squeezeout everywhere.

To finish the installation, I cleaned up all the sealant and removed the masking tape.

I double-checked the anchor fit in the roller afterwards.

 

 

 

The next step towards final installation of the anchor roller was to locate and prepare the bolt holes through the deck.  For this, I laid out the support block and used the roller to ensure it was aligned properly, then used a drill with a 3/8″ bit to mark and drill one hole all the way through the deck.  This allowed me to install one bolt to help hold everything in position while I marked the rest, and also to confirm the length of the bolt I’d ordered, since I’d had to “educationally guess” the length since I didn’t know the overall deck thickness.  As it happened, my guess (5″) was accurate, and with the roughly 1″ thick backing plate installed (not shown), the bolt length worked out well.

With one bolt pinning everything in place, I marked the remaining four holes, just into the deck, then removed the roller and base so I could prepare all the holes.  Beneath the teak veneer on this deck was a “normal” fiberglass deck with core material, so I wanted to overbore the holes and fill with epoxy, to allow for a solid epoxy water barrier around each fastener when permanently installed.  With all the holes just marked with the 3/8″ bit, I used a 5/8″ bit to drill further into the teak, enough so that I then had a starting point to use a 5/8″ Forstner bit to drill through the deck, core, and as far down as the inner skin, without going through.  This removed all the core material and left a flat bottom in the holes.  This would give me roughly 1/8″ of epoxy around the fastener in each hole.

I also drilled out the initial through-hole, then covered it with tape from beneath to hold the epoxy, and I also masked off the deck around the holes, though this whole area would eventually be covered by the roller support block.  I filled all the holes with a thickened, strengthened epoxy mixture, leaving it to cure overnight.

A helpful rigger at the boatyard where the mast was stored got some measurements of the drum and height for me.  The bottom of the drum turned out to be 7″ above the pin at the headstay, and the diameter of the vertical cylinder (and also its height) beneath the drum was approximately 3″.  These were the two crucial measurements I determined I needed to see how well the anchor and roller cleared.

To help me make a mockup, I also found some basic dimensions for the furler–or one similar to it–online.  This gave me an idea of the diameter of the furler drum–9″.

From these measurements, I built a crude mockup from cardboard and a roll of black tape that happened to be 3″ in diameter.  I attached the components to a wooden stir stick, and clamped the arrangement to the stem plate at the approximate angle of the headstay, which I could figure from the ghost of the headstay fitting visible on the plate.

With the anchor and roller in place where they belonged, I was happy to see that there appeared to be no clearance issues with the drum (most important) and the cylinder beneath it (just about as important).  Even better, there was plenty of room for error in the setup, in case my mockup was off (how could it be?) or to allow for other minor variations.  I thought my drum mockup was a bit large in diameter, but it was the best information I could find and I’d rather it be too large than not large enough.  In any event, the furler drum was well clear of the anchor, other than during times of manipulating the anchor in the roller itself, where (as is typical) some care would be required to keep the shank away from the drum when transitioning between anchor storage and deployment.

The first two photos show the actual furler in place for comparison against the mockup.

Given these findings, I planned to proceed with the final installation once the support block and backing block were ready for installation, after a bit more varnish, which process I continued now.

Finally, I removed the tape from the starboard deadlight, now that the trim and bungs had ample varnish buildup.

It would be a few days till I was ready to finalize the installation proper of the anchor roller, but to prepare now as much as possible, I used the teak spacer block against the bottom side of the roller to mark the fastening limits, then laid out four holes for fasteners that would ultimately secure the assembly to the deck.  After center-punching, I drilled out the holes in the stainless steel in two stages, with brand-new bits:  first a 1/4″ pilot hole, then a 3/8″ hole to accept the bolts later.  I lightly chamfered both sides of each hole to remove burrs.

Now I set the spacer block and roller in place on the foredeck and carefully aligned it properly so I could mark the position of the block accurately, and a final time.

With the roller back in place and positioned accurately, I marked through the holes I’d drilled, leaving the position of the bolt holes on the spacer block.  Then, I drilled these holes on the drill press, using the next size up from 3/8″.  From there, I used the offcut from the spacer block–leftover from when I dimensioned the block to the correct height–as a backing block to use belowdecks, and marked and drilled the holes in the backing block (1/2″).  I cleaned up and sanded the backing block to prepare it for varnish, since the way this chainlocker was laid out the backing block would be visible from the forward cabin.  These blocks required several coats of varnish to finish up before I could contemplate installation.

It occurred to me sometime during  the morning that the boat might have a roller furler on the headstay, and when I checked the one photo the owner had sent me of the boat in the water, I saw a furler.  I couldn’t zoom in well enough on the photo to determine the drum height,  but this was a question I needed to resolve before doing anything permanent to the boat.  I sent a message to the owner to see if he had any other photos of the furler or knew how high it was, and fortunately he was able to send me several useful photos.

So now I mocked up the roller assembly on the bow again so I could get some measurements and try to determine anecdotally how the furler and anchor and roller setup might interact.

I used some of these photos to directly compare with those the owner sent me, creating a series of quick collages that I sent to the owner.  These are down-and-dirty, just photos of my monitor with the applicable photos arranged next to one another–I didn’t take the time to combine them in a nicer or more permanent format–but they were as effective as anything in helping gauge whether there would be a clearance problem.   Among other things, there was a through-bolt through the forward pulpit support that helped register the position of things between the various photographs, and worked as a good reference point.

My gut feeling was that the furler drum would clear the anchor and roller, but after discussions with the owner, we decided the prudent thing would be to physically measure the furler on the mast itself; it was stored at a boatyard relatively close by, and to start the owner got in touch with the yard to see if they might be able to take some quick measurements, or if I’d need to go there myself to have a look.

In any event, for the moment the final installation was on hold anyway, as I needed time to get the varnish finished on the support block and backing block, and in the meantime had done nothing permanent to the deck in case it turned out that clearance was an issue.  Hopefully we’d work out this final and important detail in the next couple days.

For now, I got more varnish done on the blocks.

Finally, I lightly sanded then revarnished again the starboard deadlight frame.  I’d lost count, but I thought this was coat seven:  six had been my goal, but either way I figured one more coat was a safe bet.