Samson Post

The very first time I took Felicity Jane out of the marina I got bounced by the wake of  a great big catamaran motor yacht doing 25 in a no-wake zone. I was tied to the fuel dock and the bounce pulled the cleat right out of the foredeck like pulling a candle off a birthday cake. And that was where you were supposed to make fast the anchor rode. Not stout.

Why you would place a cheap plastic ventilator in the middle of the foredeck is beyond me. I broke it jumping off the housetop trying to corral a flying jib halyard. Luckily the hole was perfect for my plan.

That day I made up my mind to have a real Deep-Sea Mariner Samson Post. At first I was going to run it all the way down to the keel like the one on our old wooden cutter "First Light". Then I got the idea of making a giant shipwright's clamp, to sandwich a big chunk of foredeck between two slabs of ironbark bolted hella tight together and drilled out to receive the post.
Back in the day even small ships had a slab or panel of heavy plank arranged on the deck inboard of the hawse to land the anchor and wash her down before catting overside. Inevitably scuffed and splintered all to blazes, when it got too bad the carpenter would just tear it up, heave it over, and build a new one out of dunnage. Called it a billboard.

In the dark ages this stuff was thought to contain a mystical life-essence  because the sawdust turns green on exposure to the air. There's a fine-woodworking lumber store over by East Burnside. They wanted $30 for this 4x4  Lignum Vitae lathe turning blank.

Portland is not a bad place to find the right kind of gummy hardwood the stuff we used to call Ironbark back in the fishing fleet on the coast.
 God only knows what it really was, there are a hundred exotic tropical hardwoods that fit the requirement, hard as the dickens and impervious to fungus even when soaking wet all the whole year round, except for those 12  dry weeks in the Oregon Summer.

My 3/8 drive Ryobi could barely swing the 31/2 inch hole saw, but even this 8/4  Padouk, heavy and gummy as it is, eventually let me through. It took some doing but wasn't too crooked to finally use. I did remember to turn it halfway and come from the other side. That helped.

The day I put it together I nearly got in a fistfight over a chunk of Padouk that one of the locals took a shine to, under my very nose, like a bad-mannered hound will steal your sandwich if you set it down anywhere he can reach.

 The deck plank aka the billboard , I think it is Ipe, is only 3 quarters so it went easy here are all the wood parts nearing their final shape

 I came off the fore-deck with a carpenter's hatchet that wasn't as sharp as it is now but the fellow saw the light and gave up trying to take a chunk that he said was his and I knew was not. Some guys will not listen to a chick. It's like we're not even talking.

The bill-board fitted in place around all the stanchion brackets and the hawsepipe the cardboard template I made actually worked, which kind of surprised me. Sometimes they don't especially on boats  where nothing is level, plumb or square and bevels n two or three planes.

These beaver stick springers held the backing plate just fine while I drilled and pounded up on the foredeck.During the trial assembly I bored a  1/2 inch hole horizontally from the port side through the receiver block, the shaft of the post and out through the side of the block to starboard. Laying on my back with stinky sawdust raining down all over the place. But once I had everything bedded and assembled, a 10"x1/2 inch hex-head bolt cinched up tight really held everything solid as a bomb-proof rock.

I bored six half-inch holes in three pairs all down the length of the billboard. Four of them caged around the post, and one pair as far forward as the receiving block's forward end. Then half-inch stainless carriage bolts bedded in 4200 with washer stacks to spread the load a bit, and some sweaty gruntwork getting the nuts tight. I believe the six bolts grip the foredeck plenty tight.

Stainless carriage bolts and plenty of them clamped all the hardwood plenty tight. That's just plain brass rod for the ears.  Alaska Copper and Brass had some very expensive silicon bronze but they only sell 12 footers. I suppose I could have made all my bolts out of the stuff but I'm not much of a machinist. And I don't have any machines.

The actual fashioning of the parts didn't take very long, really, an afternoon or two down in the cabin in a spate of foul weather. I get a real kick out of this mariner stuff. It's a lot of fun, and I feel a lot safer swinging on the anchor when the tide shifts and really starts to run.
I hang a six inch snatch block from the bow pulpit for a fairlead to keep the chain and rode from chafing on the rail. Works pretty good.
And when I am tied up to the fuel dock I don't worry much when the power cruisers strut their stuff. This here setup is plenty stout.

I set a second little piece of light mahogany on the bow half  for a chafing board, under some Manila pudding. The post has an epoxy fillet all around where it sets through the deck and around the ears. I bedded the plank and the bolts in generous amounts of 4200. I only had to reset one of the bolts that leaked. After that nary a drop. And that post isn't going anyplace.

The installation took most of a Saturday.