One of the things that was installed on Madrone before we purchased her was a bow thruster. The thruster has turned out to be very handy when maneuvering under engine power in tight spaces, like when docking. The downside of our bow thruster is that it takes up a lot of space in our bow, reducing the area available to store our anchor chain.
Original chain locker and bow thruster – the new shelf allows the chain to be stored above the thruster
Madrone’s previous owners installed 200 feet of anchor chain, and we added 100 feet of rope to the end of the chain. We used this 300 foot combination for the past 4 years. Overall this worked out very well for us, but sometimes in deep anchorages or when the wind was really howling, we wished that we had 300 feet of chain along with 100 feet of rope.
Building shelf out of Starboard
Shelf ready for installation
So, when it was time to replace our chain we elected to get 300 feet. The only issue was that there was not enough space to stow this in our existing chain locker. We built a shelf above our bow thruster to hold our additional chain and protect the thruster.
Shelf in place in anchor locker, above bow thruster
Aft of shelf we designed a Sunbrella panel which snaps into place to prevent the chain from sliding off the back of the shelf and into the bow thruster area. Angie sewed the custom panel and installed snap fittings to hold it securely in place.
Custom Sunbrella panel aft of the shelf to keep the chain from sliding off the shelf and onto the bow thruster
