Bow Pulpit - part 1

Great Ketch is on the hard and under its winter wrap. Time for the winter boat work to commence.
During the past few years I had redone the brightwork on all the teak except the toe rail and bow pulpit. Now it is time to for the bow pulpit to get some attention.

Before the winter wrap, I removed the pulpit from the deck of the bow; 8 ss bolts and 4 ss smaller bolts held the pulpit securely to the deck; however, removing the bolts was not an easy task. The bow area under the pulpit is the anchor locker, which is its own bulkhead space. This space is not only designed to stow the anchor chain and rode, but is a safety feature; the area is three feet of space that is designed to keep water from entering the main cabin area in case of breach in the bow. Only a small hatch opening is available in the bulkhead for the purpose of inspection of the anchor locker.

In order to remove the bolts it required fastening bars on ratchets in order to extend the handle far enough to reach the nuts from the main cabin side of the bulkhead. Someone turned the bolt from above while I held fast the nut on the bolt. Removing the bolts did give my arm and shoulder a work out but the real challenge will be placing these nuts back on in the Spring when the pulpit is ready to be fastened to the deck.

The picture to the left is the pulpit without the Sampson post and without the windlass. I plan to separate the boards, and clean and brighten the wood and clean the aluminum bars. After the parts are placed together again, I will need to add strength to the bolt holes. It is apparent that years of movement when on the hook had elongated some of the holes; these holes will need to be reshaped. Perhaps epoxy and filler will allow me to redrill new holes. I am also thinking of replacing the ss washers that were used on the bolts with a ss or aluminum plate that would help spread the compression load when on the hook.

The large hole allows the rope and chain to enter the anchor locker raising the hook. Great Ketch has a 33lb Bruce anchor and 250 feet of rope. There are two other anchors that are on Great Ketch stored in the cockpit lockers both are Danforths.