Installed Anchor Roller and chain pipe on Suncat

[Tim22]

This was the Canada Day weekend and was spectacularly beautiful. It was also a weekend of many projects of which the main one was to install an anchor roller and chain pipe. For those wishing to undertake this project here is what we discovered.

I ordered the roller and chain pipe from Hutchins. The roller is a customized fitting that replaces the standard bow chain plate fitting. Gerry was kind enough to send me a top down photo of the finished installation and answered my questions ahead of time.

I had read in another post in this forum that the hole for the chain pipe should be cut first as this would allow us to reach under the foredeck to unbolt the existing bow chain plate. This is how we started out. First we made a cardboard template of the chain pipe and positioned it on the deck, marked it, and cut it out using a Dremel rotary cutting blade (looks like a drill bit). Following this we tried to reach through the hole to reach the nuts on the existing bow fitting, but this proved impossible. My son in law eventually managed to remove the nuts from the cabin by lying on his back with his head jammed up against the starboard side of the mast and reaching around the port side with a ratchet wrench. It took almost an hour to remove the two nuts and this was the most problematic part of the project. Had this not worked we were considering removing the bulkhead.

Once the existing fitting was removed we filled the two holes with Marine Tex Epoxy.

The next step was to install the bow roller. We located the roller with the first bolt hole slightly forward of the two original holes. We then marked and drilled the 5 holes in the foredeck, caulked the holes and roller fitting, put the roller in place and dropped the bolts in. This took us to the next challenge which was to put the backing washers and nuts on the bolts. We placed the nut into the ratchet and placed a small amount of caulking on the washer to stick it to the top of the ratchet. My son in law then assumed the position on his back in the cabin and held the nut and washer in position while I tightened the bolt from above. We repeated this for the five bolts.

The only remaining task was to install the chain pipe fitting. We predrilled the four holes, added caulking liberally and screwed the chain pipe down with #10 SS screws.

One last thing before raising the mast. The Anchor roller forestay connector sits higher than the original and this makes the forestay way to loose. To correct for this remove the multi holed spacer piece between the mast tang and the forestay and connect the stay directly to the tang. This is the configuration used by Com-Pac for Sun Cats equipped with the anchor roller (as per Gerry Hutchins).

The results were very satisfying, but for anyone undertaking this project I would advise figuring out how to get the nuts off the bow fitting before jumping in. I was fortunate to have a long armed and extraordinarily patient son in law, but for him this project would have been a disaster!!

[capt_nemo]

For those who may need access to the bow area I offer the following information.

When I bought my new Sun Cat I removed ALL the interior wood pieces to seal and protect them.

The forward bulkhead was removed as part of this process. It was an easy task to perform. Carefully removing the trim around the sides and top of the bulkhead exposed four screws, two port and two starboard, holding the bulkhead in position. Once these screws were removed the bulkhead was easily removed providing excellent access into the bow area.

capt_nemo