Originally Posted by
Philpott
. . . I'm hoping for photographs and suggestions.
I'm not familiar with the Cal 2-27, so I'm not sure if this will help, but here goes:
My previous boat was a 28’ racer/cruiser made by S-2 Yachts (Model 8.6; a little bigger and cruisier than AlanH’s 7.9), and I gave her a bow roller sort of like this:
I could use two existing bolts on the bow plate on the starboard side of the stem piece on the boat, and the two bolt holes at the aft end of the bow roller. But I had to drill one new hole in the bow roller and one new hole in the bow plate to have three bolts holding the roller in place. In the next picture, the dimple in the bow plate, outboard of the second Phillips-head bolt, was my first attempt to drill the plate with a regular 3/8” drill and half a dozen drill bits:
I was able to finish drilling the bow plate with a much bigger drill from a buddy’s machine shop, tungsten drill bits, and cutting oil. I put a backing plate under the new bolt, matching the existing two. I was happy with the result, and it held steady in many anchoring adventures, some in high-stress conditions.
Well worth the effort if you intend to anchor out more than once every few years.
What the bow roller did not accomplish, however, was any dampening of the swinging on the wind the boat would do at anchor. That problem was caused by the boat's inherent windage: wind on the nose would blow the bow off to one side or the other, and the boat would saw back and forth all night. Not fun, not safe, and bad in a crowded anchorage where you want all boats swinging together as the wind shifts. Adding an anchor-riding sail was the 100% cure for that problem. The harder the wind would blow, the more arrow-straight the boat would hold nose to wind.
Many boats behave well at anchor without a riding sail, but if you find yours does not, the riding sail is well worth the cost and effort.
Good luck. Being able to get some sleep while anchored out is one of the great joys of cruising.
Last edited by AZ Sailor; 01-09-2018 at 10:44 AM.
Lee
s/v Morning Star
Valiant 32