Thread: Bow Roller - Advice Required

An anchor will always swing, regardless of the length of the anchor perch, pulpit or even a small sprit. The farther away from the bow the anchor is when retrieved, the bigger the swing, so more damage in the event of a strike.

The best solution is a hawse pipe on a boat with a lot of flare and a substantial stainless guard, this wouldn't be typical on a 17' boat. If you want it off the bow, then the stainless guard around the stem trick is the best solution, simply because you can't avoid the dangling anchor swinging and bashing into the stem.

Powerboats of a long past era had this feature often, though at times it was a styling exercise more than anything else.

Hi Majed, I work for a small enginerring company at Wetherill Park (Sydney) and we can make all sorts of stuff and I get a decent discount , fell free to pm me. A 500mm bow roller on a 17' boat seems extreme, I can only think that you have very little "rake" on the bow. The bow roller on my 32' has only about 300mm over hang and is made from 100 x 50mm heavy duty MS channel. The little steel boat I owned a couple of years ago had a very "straight" bow and was fitted with a very nice piece of 125 x 125mm hardwood bow sprit with about 500mm over hang and light gauge channel with roller fitted, the whole lot was bolted down through the reinforced steel deck. This may be an option for your boat and something that can be built in the back yard with basic hand tools.
Pars post re stainless protection is quite valid, how ever not cheap. I built one for my mates 30' plastic Phantom yacht years ago and it was any thing but easy.