Here are a few photos of me repairing the bow platform. I didn't see any in my collection showing the completed work with the Spade hanging on the starboard roller, sorry. I tore the starboard half off last year when the wind switched in the night and we ended up on a lee shore with half the Gulf of Honduras upwind. Waves in the anchorage were 2.5 meters at dawn. When I pulled up the anchor, it was rather well hooked, and a surge tore the bow platform off rather than pulling the hook up. These photos are of me building a new one. This is the second time I've had to do this repair; the original platform was torn off in Hurricane Ivan in Grenada, and the teak that was used to replace it at that time was not very high quality with a lot of checking. This time I changed the design a bit, adding lateral support blocks underneath like the raised platforms have. The pictures don't show the final roller in place but give you the idea of how it is supported. Note that it is NOT the same kind of roller as the one on the port side. The starboard roller I used is this one with the wire bail removed. [https://jet.com/product/detail/51f8fe60e6fd433c8eb3003c1cab6a7a]  The way it is mounted the pivot bolt for the roller is located entirely below the bottom of the platform itself so the wheel is easily changed. The Spade nests up against a stainless plate I mounted on the sprit itself, and the Bruce on the opposite side hooks under the sprit and touches a plate on the starboard side so both fit together and neither one bangs on anything in a seaway. The shank of the Spade lies flat on top of the platform, with the shackle held down by a snap hook on a short cord at the base of the platform.

By the way, it took me three weeks to find someone with a piece of teak that big on Roatan - it's all grown on the mainland. I was just about ready to take a trip to the jungle to try to find some when I happened across a furniture maker while on a dog walk. I asked him if he had any teak and he showed me about 1000 board feet of rough sawn wood in a container. He sold me the wood including rough planing, cutting and shaping this piece, which is six feet long by two inches thick by ten inches wide, for $100.

Charlie
s/v Kamaloha