Help on building a bow roller setup

[resilientg]

How you going,

i started installing my anchor winch today, and one of the next things on my hit list will be to do some sort of bow roller / 1 foot long bow sprit type thing, lets just call it a nudge bar, ha ha

Basically on the front of my steel boat i want to make a little extended bow roller to pick and and deploy the anchor whilst keeping it nice and away from my hull.

I will build it all out of stainless, and will fabricate it myself, but do you guys have any ideas on things that i should look out for or that you have had problems with before.

I have done some research (as i always do) into these little things, but its always nice to have others ideas and opinions.

What i have access to is angle and plate that is quite heavy gauge, i have to have my for-stay in the middle of what i build, but not connected to it.

If any of you have some arrangement that your happy or proud of then a picture of that would be great.

Thanks in advance

Matthew

[Cotemar]

Why not just buy one.

Defender.com Search Results: anchor rollers

[Eric M]

On our boat I ended up having to raise the elevation of the windlass due to the fact that the anchor roller was too high relative to the windlass resulting in less than a full 90 degree wrap of the chain on the windlass so that is something to keep in mind as you design, the further forward you move the roller, the higher up it will go (assuming your shear rises as you move forward). The other consideration is strength, if you run the rode over the roller while anchored, there will be significant downward pressure on the roller as the bow tries to rise up and over a wave and the anchor tries to keep it down. Hope this helps.

[bruce smith]

Mine is just a big nog of wood, quiet, rust free, cheap.
The placement of the windlass , as above, is way more important.
In addition to getting more links on , as above, alignment is a pita. As one switches from the rope side to the chain side, either the chain will slip or the rope turns will /may jam.
I like to put the windlass as far aft as possible to help with this .
It also brings the weight further aft and allows the winch to be used as a "horse" , pulling up by hand in the middle of the chain on deck and letting the chain fall into /one way the locker. can't do that if the windlass is chocked up on the bow.

[Sailmonkey]

Do you know what sort of anchor your going to mount on it?

That'll help you decide how to shape a large part of it.

[boden36]

Hi Matthew,
Think about two large rollers and good thick cheeks with plenty of height above the rollers. Room to put a retaining pin at least across one roller. Some round bar on the leading edge helps to stop chafing.
Make it so the anchor is self stowing on the roller.
If you can set it down into the stem a little bit it will help to strengthen everything.
If you can afford it,use stainless. I used mild steel for Nekeyah and am forever touching up chips and resultant rust.

Regards,
Richard.

[micah719]

No sharp edges where they might chafe lines?

What kind of winch?

Are you going with one roller only, or one each side of the sprit/nudge bar? Have you got the anchor/s already, so you can design in a secure yet easy and quick to release restraint? Chain stopper built in? Samson post? Cleats?

Is the nudge bar being designed to fail before it transfers naughty hull-bending energies to whatever it's attached to?

Any way of preventing the rode skipping off the roller if you're hobbyhorsing in a heavy sea at anchor?

Are you welding the SS to the hull, or bedding it on something? Got a decent way of preventing water getting into it and causing crevice corrosion? Is it 316 SS?

Goodonya for going DIY....please keep us posted with what you come up with!