Anchor Locker

After taking a week or two to catch our breath, we're back on the GB 50 full time, finishing up the battery install and moving forward with our expanding plans to rebuild the anchor locker. As we may have mentioned earlier in the blog, the original locker had several issues. After several attempts at running the 7/16ths chain it became apparent it simply wouldn't stack correctly, no matter how we changed the fair-leading around. And now that the owner has requested a 300' chain capacity. Our solution was move the forward bulkhead back one frame, so that instead of the chain being under the v-berth and running through a steel tube, it will now just fall into a much larger space, the floor of which would be above the waterline, allowing it to be flushable and self-draining--a big plus.

While working on the locker, we discovered that the windlass was attached with mild steel fasteners and to make matters even worse, we found that two of the four fasteners were rusted through and broken. Our plan is to replace the fasteners with greatly stronger and more durable stainless steel--he feels it would be beneficial for the windlass to actually stay attached while anchoring. Since the windlass is off, we'll take it in for service and also have it painted. The owner is very pleased with our efforts and it just shows that a little creativity can go a long way towards solving most any operational challenge that might come up.