Accessing Bow Mount Anchor Roller Nuts and Washers

[ssmith]

Hi everyone, since Christian bumped the old thread with my original question, I'll respond (and tell you a little about the boat journey for those interested since I've never really shared that on the forum).  (I consider our boat the rare barn find and you guys may enjoy the story).
To answer Christian's original question of how did I get to the nuts and washers when removing the old bow roller, like A.J. said in his post, they are under the carpet in the VERY front of the bow.  (I do not have an anchor locker).  It was a two person job and was quite aggravating.  The area in in which they are mounted makes for extremely tight quarters, but I just kept working at it tediously until all the nuts and washers were removed.  I used the existing holes from the anchor roller for a custom made aluminum bow mount trolling motor bracket. 
So as far as the boat search / purchase / customization, here goes-
I live in the Southeast and oddly enough the toys I set my mind on are ones produced in the Washington / British Columbia areas (Arima and Bigfoot Truck camper).  I guess that's kind of funny for someone who has never lived outside Florida and Georgia.  My previous boat was a 20' Twin Vee Cat, but the problem was (aside from major repairs needed to the boat / engine as well as uncomfortably low gunnels), it seemed like our fishing trips always coincided with thunderstorms that popped up in the Gulf (along the Florida Panhandle where we fish).  My wife was getting to the point where the rains (and inevitable soaking) was starting to deter her from wanting to go fishing.  At that point I started looking for a boat small enough for us to comfortably handle but still have a cabin to duck into and get out of the weather.  I started looking at C Dory's and along the way stumbled onto Arima and I fell in love with the boat without ever having seen one (other than in pictures).  So I began the hunt...  One day in late 2019 I happened onto a Craig's list posting for a "96 16 Sea Chaser" (which actually turned out to be a 95 Sea Explorer) for $4,000 about 2 and a half hours away from where I live.  So we started out on a cold rainy (read slick roads)  November morning in our little Ford Escape (first mistake) to take a look at the boat in a hilly area of Southwestern Georgia.   The owner allowed us to take the boat for a test at a local lake about 30 minutes from his house.  With no brakes on the trailer and the hilly curvy road slick with rain, we were paranoid about having to make a sudden stop and not being able to safely control the heavy little boat (that we later named "Chubs").  So we went for our test run and everything went wrong (except for the motor- it ran fine).  But the wind was howling and the bimini top was missing a strap up front so while my wife was trying to hold it down, when I opened up to top speed, the flapping ripped the top.  So, after a very brief run, we turned around and went to load the boat.  The tires on the Escape spun like crazy trying to pull the boat out.  It wasn't until I saw the transom bouncing that I realized in the rush to get out of the rain, I forgot to raise the manual tilt on the outboard.  So after getting the boat out, I noticed that the skeg on the foot of the motor was bent.  So now we weren't sure if the bouncing on the ramp did this damage or if it was already that way previously and we just didn't notice.  So were soaked and my wife was frustrated (the whole point was to get her something in which she'd be comfortable with in the rain and now we had a 2 and half hour ride home in cold wet clothes to look forward to).  We decided we didn't want the boat and told ourselves it was too small, so we took it back to the owner and went home.  But we just couldn't stop thinking about the damage we'd done to the top and (possibly) to the motor's skeg.  My conscience just wouldn't let me let it go.  I figured since I'm going to own up to the damage and pay for it, since he was asking $4,000, I'd just go back, buy the boat, and see if I liked it (we planned to re-power with a 4 stroke anyway).  So, I called the man back and a couple of weeks later, we went back and picked her up and haven't looked back- turned out to be a great decision as the boat more than meets our hopes and expectations.  (We did go back with a Ford F-250 to pick her up so we wouldn't' be setting on pins and needles on the ride home).  Nine months later, the F-250 broke down on the interstate towing the Arima and after spending an entire day at a repair shop, trust me when I say-  10 pounds of cigar minnows plus squid and shrimp do not make for a happy surprise when you open the bait tank with no ice after spending the entire day in the Florida August sun!  Anyway, after twice replacing fuel injectors and twice replacing the fuel pump, it was time for the money pit of the dreaded Power Stroke 6.00 F-250 to go to a new home pulling peanut trailers so we sold it.    Shortly after all of this, we bought a used Bigfoot truck camper, so I now pull the Arima with a dually F-350, and although it's overkill to the point of actually feeling silly, it's what I've got, so at least I don't have to worry about stopping the boat now.    The boat had a 60 horse Johnson two stroke and the guy even threw in a 3 horse Sears 95 Gamefisher he'd picked up at an estate sale (still in original box with original receipt still sealed in the plastic pouch glued to the box).  The boat's bow had a crack in it from a prior owner striking something, but this owner had it professionally repaired by some really talented fiberglass guys at a boat shop in Alabama (receipt provided to me).  Then he purchased a brand new (he supplied the receipt from his purchase) aluminum Magic Tilt trailer for the boat.
So now, the modifications begin.  The first thing was to pull the 60 Johnson Two Stroke and replace with a Yamaha F-70 (again- great decision).  I found a dealer with a close out on a brand new 2018 F-70.  For the motor, install, new steering, and water separator installed, the total was around $8,000.  Since I really didn't have any easy way to store it and load the old 2 stroke, I sold it for $400 (just to get my truck bed back) and just slid it from my truck to the new owners on a pallet.  The little Gamefisher motor cranked great in the yard, but every time I tried to run it in the gulf, it failed to crank easily.  When it did run, it just didn't seem strong enough to fight the current and being a short shaft, it was not suited for the fixed kicker bracket.  Since I already had nearly new X-Long shaft 9.8 Tohatsu, I sold the little Gamefisher for a few hundred dollars.  So I had the fixed bracket beefed up by a welder to add extra support for the heavy 4 stroke kicker.  Next we added the custom made bracket to the front for the trolling motor and moved the two batteries to the cuddy.  The boat set a little low on the trailer so after several tweaks of moving the bunks on the trailer, we finally got that right.  But the boat was EXTREMELY hard to winch up on the bunks.  Some EZ slide bunk pads fixed that problem.  Another issue we faced last summer was the trailer was set up with the wrong sized springs and they kept allowing the fender to squat down and rub on the tire.  I couldn't tell it was the springs until I jacked the trailer up and with an audible pop, it went back to the original position.  So the proper springs corrected that issue.  Planing issues-  so even with the trolling motor and two group 27 batteries up front, with a battery still in the back, a full fuel tank, and a 100 plus pound kicker, the boat wouldn't stay on plane if I dropped below 18 miles an hour.  I first added a hydrofoil, which still did not lower the planning speed.  So I wound up putting on Lenco 9x12 trim tabs with the LED indicator switch.  At the same time, I replaced the old depth finder (which had a dark spot making it impossible to read) with a Humminbird Helix 5.  So we were ready to go, or so we thought.  First trip out, apparently all of the new stuff was too much for the old fuse panel and it all went out.  We didn't even get to test the trim tabs or the new fish finder.  So, back home we go, all bummed out.  I had a guy re-wire it, but since we're three plus hours from the coast, I haven't been able to really test it under a normal load (more about that in a minute)  to see how much of a difference the trim tabs make in the planning speed.  It was a two hour one way trip just to have the guy re-wire it, so I figured what the heck, it's a huge ordeal to schedule time to drop it off and pick it up, so we may as well bite the bullet and let the guy make us a new top, front curtain and sides (since it came with no enclosure) as he also does custom canvas work.  (I had a local person stitch up the top that was damaged during our initial run, but it was old and leaked).  That pretty much completed the big wish list on the boat, so now we need to just start towing it to enjoy it rather than towing it to do repairs / upgrades.  Normally, we fish inshore for speckled trout on the flats of the Big Bend up through the Panhandle of Florida.  On good days, we venture out to about 15 miles for Red Snapper, Black Sea Bass, and what we locally call Pink Lip Grunts (folks refer to them as White Snapper when they want to make them sound more fancy and appealing, LOL).  That's where the trolling motor comes in- the spot lock feature holds the boat over an artificial reef without the aggravation of fighting the anchor, line, etc. 
Right after Thanksgiving, we were able to take my dad (who will soon be 90) out on Chubs speckled trout fishing to Steinhatchee, Florida (first time he'd been there in 26 years) so that made a great memory.  Most of where we ran that day was in a no wake zone, and with an extra person in the boat, we really couldn't get a feel for what the trim tabs will do under a normal load as we had the extra weight that day with someone sitting in the back.  So that's my story.  Lots of you guys have helped me along the way when I've  posed questions with private messages and I've also had many questions answered via the public posts, so thanks to everyone with their help.  I love my boat and I really enjoy the camaraderie of the forum.

[christianbrat]

WOW!!! All i can say is Thank you so much for the help and thank you for the epic story!! Thats quite the turn of events with the journey from shopping to owning! I remember driving away with my sea explorer behind my 4cyl highlander.... luckily the weather was much much better for my drive home so there was not as much nerves!  I'm going to take a peek under the carpet and see what i can do!  I'd love to sturgeon fish on it this winter and need to anchor up!