briandunnington
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2020
- Messages
- 139
- Fluid Motion Model
- C-242 C
- Vessel Name
- Salty Lass
I wanted to upgrade our anchor to the Rocna 10, but you know how it is - once you upgrade one thing, you have to upgrade something else. Along with the anchor, I upgraded to a new swivel/shackle, and all new 8-plait rode as well.
One side effect of the new Rocna anchor is that it is much bigger than the old anchor and with the stock bow roller, the sharp point would hit the hull. I know a few people have used the Mantus AnchorGuard (aka AnchorMate) with the stock bow roller with success, but the stock bow roller is pretty small and just didnt seem to be up to par with the other new components, so I wanted to replace it.
One solution is to replace the entire bow roller, but the bow rollers are bolted to the hull in a way that makes the bolts inaccessible after the boat is built. A few people drilled a hole in their anchor locker to access the bolts and installed an inspection plate to cover the hole. While that makes sense, I couldnt bring myself to drill a giant hole in our boat.
Then I saw posts by @az9133bm and others where you could use the existing bow roller as a mounting point for a new bow roller - effectively removing the need to drill the hole. Seems that nearly everyone uses the Mantus BR1 for this modification because it has a flange that allows it to be bolted through the existing bow roller.
I was going to follow suit and do the same, but the BR1 solution still had some drawbacks for me. The anchor could still hit the hull, so you still need to use the AnchorGuard as well. Nothing wrong with that - both the BR1 and AnchorGuard are solid products, but I wanted an integrated solution. I did a ton of research and stumbled upon the Kingston KR-1015 - it is made in Canada and is specifically made for the Rocna anchors and doesnt require any extra pieces. Because of the design, I thought it might work for my custom application.
One great thing about the Kingston bow roller is that they provide detailed mechanical drawings that give all of the dimensions. Because of this, I decided to make a cardboard mockup of the bow roller to try out on our boat to see how it would work before committing.
This test fitting confirmed that the bow roller would work, so I decided to order it. When it arrived, I was very happy to see that it was exactly the same dimensions & shape as my mockup.
Because the Kingston bow roller was designed specifically for the Rocna, it was of course a perfect fit:
With all of parts now acquired, now was the fun part of installing it. Because of the design of the Ranger Tug deck and the shape of the existing bow roller, I needed a spacer block to raise up and level out the new roller. I bought a piece of King Starboard from TAP plastics - they have a bunch of thicknesses available and you can have them custom cut it to any size. I needed a 1.5" thick piece, 3 3/8" wide, and 12" long (I got it a little long so I could cut it to the exact length as needed). I also got a 3"x12" piece of stainless steel plate to use as a backing plate on the underside of the deck.
The key piece of the puzzle was to drill a hole through the new bow roller that would allow a bolt to pass through both the old and new bow roller. I measured five times to be sure of the location and then drilled the hole through the new bow roller. (Drilling through the 3/16" stainless steel was challenging).
I put everything temporarily in place on the boat and lined up the new roller with the old roller. I drilled through the old bow roller with the new one in place and put in a new 4" 3/8" stainless steel bolt through both.
With the stainless steel backing plate underneath, then the deck, then the starboard spacer, the new bow roller sat perfectly in position. I used some BoatLIFE Life Seal sealant between each piece and around all of the bolt holes to prevent water from getting into the deck core.
Now that the new bow roller was in place, I loaded up the new anchor rode and Rocna anchor. The Kingston roller even has a locking pin built in to secure the anchor when stowed.
Full write-up on my blog at https://briandunnington.com/ranger_tug_r23_bow_roller
One side effect of the new Rocna anchor is that it is much bigger than the old anchor and with the stock bow roller, the sharp point would hit the hull. I know a few people have used the Mantus AnchorGuard (aka AnchorMate) with the stock bow roller with success, but the stock bow roller is pretty small and just didnt seem to be up to par with the other new components, so I wanted to replace it.
One solution is to replace the entire bow roller, but the bow rollers are bolted to the hull in a way that makes the bolts inaccessible after the boat is built. A few people drilled a hole in their anchor locker to access the bolts and installed an inspection plate to cover the hole. While that makes sense, I couldnt bring myself to drill a giant hole in our boat.
Then I saw posts by @az9133bm and others where you could use the existing bow roller as a mounting point for a new bow roller - effectively removing the need to drill the hole. Seems that nearly everyone uses the Mantus BR1 for this modification because it has a flange that allows it to be bolted through the existing bow roller.
I was going to follow suit and do the same, but the BR1 solution still had some drawbacks for me. The anchor could still hit the hull, so you still need to use the AnchorGuard as well. Nothing wrong with that - both the BR1 and AnchorGuard are solid products, but I wanted an integrated solution. I did a ton of research and stumbled upon the Kingston KR-1015 - it is made in Canada and is specifically made for the Rocna anchors and doesnt require any extra pieces. Because of the design, I thought it might work for my custom application.
One great thing about the Kingston bow roller is that they provide detailed mechanical drawings that give all of the dimensions. Because of this, I decided to make a cardboard mockup of the bow roller to try out on our boat to see how it would work before committing.
This test fitting confirmed that the bow roller would work, so I decided to order it. When it arrived, I was very happy to see that it was exactly the same dimensions & shape as my mockup.
Because the Kingston bow roller was designed specifically for the Rocna, it was of course a perfect fit:
With all of parts now acquired, now was the fun part of installing it. Because of the design of the Ranger Tug deck and the shape of the existing bow roller, I needed a spacer block to raise up and level out the new roller. I bought a piece of King Starboard from TAP plastics - they have a bunch of thicknesses available and you can have them custom cut it to any size. I needed a 1.5" thick piece, 3 3/8" wide, and 12" long (I got it a little long so I could cut it to the exact length as needed). I also got a 3"x12" piece of stainless steel plate to use as a backing plate on the underside of the deck.
The key piece of the puzzle was to drill a hole through the new bow roller that would allow a bolt to pass through both the old and new bow roller. I measured five times to be sure of the location and then drilled the hole through the new bow roller. (Drilling through the 3/16" stainless steel was challenging).
I put everything temporarily in place on the boat and lined up the new roller with the old roller. I drilled through the old bow roller with the new one in place and put in a new 4" 3/8" stainless steel bolt through both.
With the stainless steel backing plate underneath, then the deck, then the starboard spacer, the new bow roller sat perfectly in position. I used some BoatLIFE Life Seal sealant between each piece and around all of the bolt holes to prevent water from getting into the deck core.
Now that the new bow roller was in place, I loaded up the new anchor rode and Rocna anchor. The Kingston roller even has a locking pin built in to secure the anchor when stowed.
Full write-up on my blog at https://briandunnington.com/ranger_tug_r23_bow_roller
