Yeah I like this place too. Mike is a great guy and I know he is working hard to get his sled where it needs to be without spending a mint.

Michael - a large oval deck pipe and a roller bracket is by far the simplest anchor setup on a Seafari and very easy to use. (See attached pic; I've since rotated that cleat 90 degrees because it was too close to the deck pipe!) You can even raise and lower the anchor just standing up in the hatch w/o getting on deck if it's really rough! BTW, I use 20' of chain and 300' of line that allows me to anchor in ~60' w/5:1 scope. There is plenty of room in anchor locker for that much line, and there is another advantage for having that much line. For Gulf Stream crossings on our Bahama trips, we always ran our anchor lines down thru a shackle or carabiner hook attached to towing eye and then back up to the deck with a big snap hook attached to end of anchor line, so it could be quickly be deployed as a tow line, with the towing load applied to a very strong fitting instead of a deck cleat. (Murphy sez that when you break down, it'll be in the middle of a thunderstorm with the rain coming down sideways and 10' visibility, so you want to be able to hook up quick!) Each boat in our flotilla was also equipped with two 20' lines attached to transom towing eyes with a spliced thimble and snap hook and an eye splice in the other end, with the lines just coiled up and hanging on the stern cleats. When you put the two eyes together you have a bridle attached to the strongest part of your boat, so the "towee" can just put the anchor line snap hook thru the two eyes for a quick hook up. While using the small 3/8 nylon line is good because it stretches a lot, having 300' of it for a tow line is even better, because if towing offshore in big seas, it's real easy for the "tow-er" and "tow-ee" to get out of phase on waves, causing sudden shock loads on towline. Snapped towlines are a common problem, so the longer they are the better. A 300' nylon line becomes a pretty elastic "rubber band" that's less likely to snap under those conditions.

Although the roller bracket/deck pipe setup is so easy to use that I've always been able to drop the anchor quickly when by myself, there is another "lazy man's" anchor set up that Moose is probably referring to that you can use if you're by yourself and too lazy to go up to the front deck . . . just rig up a line from your bow cleat to a snatch block or snap shackle on a 20' line attached to the bow cleat and secured to a midship cleat but hanging over the gunnel into the cockpit. You can keep your line and anchor in a bucket or bin in the cockpit. When you get ready to anchor, just toss the anchor overboard, run the line through the snatch block or snap shackle, and then let out the line connected to snatch block and make bitter end fast to your midship cleat. This way the anchor load will be taken by the bow cleat so boat will head into the wind/waves. You can also do the same thing with an anchor bouy attached to anchor line with a snap shackle. Then when you're ready to haul in the anchor, just pull in the snatch block (or buoy) so the anchor comes up next to the cockpit. That way you can avoid going on deck in rough seas. The buoy has another advantage in that you can use it to help pull the anchor if it gets stuck under a ledge, etc. The only drawback to this method that I can see is that it will be a pain if you have a lot of chain to deal with, whereas the chain is actually easier to handle than rope with the deck pipe/roller bracket setup. Plus if the seas are really big, I'd rather be hauling the anchor up from the bow with it punching into oncoming waves rather than taking the waves on the beam! Denny

Denny's set up is very similar to mine accept I don't have a hatch that allows access close enough to the bow to deploy and stow.... but in your case you do. That is somewhat of a game changer. The deployment and retrieval I use is similar as he mentioned as I prep my anchor set up prior to leaving the dock on a day I am taking other fishing and will be required to anchor multiple times during the day. Having the hook, line and chain in a small crate in the back ready to deploy and pull is a good way to keep the timing of deployment close at hand when your trying to set the boat for fishing a small spot. More of a process than can be explained here but we can practice that on the water. I think Denny's bow set up would be the way to go for your sled and there is nobody here with more experience on the hook as he.