Seafari/Scepter Bow Pulpit

[Bushwacker]

Originally Posted by Vezo, Part II

My new to me Seafari requires a bow pulpit and a Lewmar windlass for grouper fishing the Gulf. The inaccessibility of the bow is just not conducive for anchoring and re anchoring over small structure, after attempting to calculate wind and tide. At least in my experience.

My plan is to fabricate my own using two 3/4" Coosaw Board and glassing myself. At this time I have no opening, or access through the bow and into the anchor locker. Minus cutting the rope with a hung anchor, how would I disperse load across the surface of the bow? Seems the strongest parts would be around the lip nearest the rub rail, or hull joint to cap?

Any and all feedback is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Vezo Part II

How deep are you planning to anchor?

Even though I'm in my 70's, and not particularly well coordinated, I've found that bow accessibility on the Seafari is not that big a deal, especially after I figured out how to brace the Bimini top off the windshield (see first pic below) to make a firm handhold for going around the side deck. (I hope your VHF antenna is mounted on port side so it doesn't get in the way!) Don't remember if your boat has a bow rail on it; the bow rail sort of gets in the way, but I like having it in rough seas, as it's kept me from going overboard many times! Or as Connor says, just go thru the cabin hatch. You also don't need a windlass or a bow pulpit if you have someone with you (an anchor wench?!) Although I can see where you might want a windlass if you plan to go out by yourself a lot.

What you need is a big oval deck pipe centered over the anchor locker, a center cleat and a roller bracket for the anchor. (I carry 300' of anchor line and 20' of chain; if you don't center the deck pipe, the line will pile up on the flare of the hull when you retrieve it!) I did a post of my anchor bracket install about 6 years ago but can't seem to find it, so I'll post some of the pictures here. My bracket doesn't hang out over the bow very far, but it's not hard to pull up the anchor without hitting the boat if you're carefull. When I'm in the keys for mini-season, I probably drop the anchor at least a dozen times/day, often trying to anchor within a few feet of a waypoint so I can use the scuba/hooka rig right from the boat without having to put the tank in an inner tube. My setup works very well, although I've found that GFS makes a real handy anchor wench, so that helps too!

That roller bracket creates leverage that can put some serious loads into the deck, so I felt it was important to beef up the deck. I believe I used 2 pieces of 3/8 plywood, coated with epoxy and bonded to the underside of the deck with cabosil. I used 2 layers of thinner plywood so it would conform to the deck curvature and supported it from underneath with a bottle jack till the epoxy cured. I also used some 1/2" plywood backing blocks under the 2 OEM bow cleats, which fit into the raised "toe rail" section under the cleats, which made it flush with the rest of the deck so the big 3/8" panels would fit smoothly over it. Denny

You'll obviously have to replace your bow light with separate red and green lights. I found some nice white plastic LED lights that I mounted in front of the cabin windows, although if I were to do it again, I think I'd mount 'em higher, just below the sides of the windshield. In the current location, they don't quite meet the USCG regs for viewing angles, since the sides of the cabin taper going forward and aren't parallel to the CL of boat. Denny