What is wrong in this photo?

There are at least 3 things to find wrong with the boat this photo was taken of.
See if you can spot some of them in this photo.

Did you get them all?

#1 The biggy in the photo is that the roller furling drum link plates are preventing the toggle at the bottom of the forestay from moving. This means that the side load placed on the forestay by the sail when the boat is sailing is going to cause a point on the forestay to bend back and forth as the stay moves in response to the force of the sail on it. This will work harden the forestay resulting eventually in the forestay breaking. The fix here is to shorten the link plates or possibly the forestay and insert another toggle in the system, one that allows the forestay to move in both the foreward and aft, and athwart ship direction. This protects the stay from unfair loading and possible failure.

#2 Winter time is coming up here along with the threat of some stormy conditions. That dock line is showing quite a bit of chafe. Also it appears the the dock line is made of Dacron double braid. A line with more stretch in it would be better for this high load, heavy shock usage.

#3 The broken anchor roller. You got that one for sure right! This is most likely the result of an owner of the boat using the anchor roller to take the strain of the anchor line in a rolly or choppy anchorage. Remember anchor rollers are there to make deploying and retrieving the anchor easier they are not there to take the full force of the boat lurching against them in an unsettled anchorage. The chocks, cleats and the bits on classic boats are there to take the loads imposed by the anchor rode. If the anchor rode is all chain then a nylon line snubber should be lead back through the chocks to the cleats. If the anchor rode is nylon, then a bight of the rode should come through a chock and be lead to a cleat. This keeps the load off of anchor roller and onto the bow of the boat where it belongs.

#4 is a design flaw. That is a very sharp bend for the dock line to have to do to get to a cleat. It would be a better fair lead if we were anchoring. This is probably what caused the chafing which is #2 in the photo. The owner might be better while at the dock to run the dock lines across to the other cleat if it didn't cause chafe on the deck. Or place some good chafe protection on the dock lines.

Did you find some we haven't explorered? If so drop us a line and let us know what you found.

See a good puzzler photo? Send it to us and we will give you credit in the puzzlers selection.

Keep your eyes open on your boat, and as you walk the docks. There is a lot of interesting things to see out there. Make your boat safer by learning to look at it with a critical eye.