Bow ladder - how do they attach? Elan 333, Italy

[brownsox]

Heading to Greece this year, planning to go bows-to to quays.
I (swimbo) struggle to hoist myself up these days, so we've been looking at bow ladders. They all seem to have two deep hooks at a fixed angle and it's not clear how that will fit on any given boat ... Ours is an Elan 333. It would also have to coexist with the anchor (Rocnor).
As the boat's in Italy we can't try it first.
Any advice comments or experiences very welcome.

 

[Resolution]

Given the varying heights of quaysides in Greece I would prefer to moor up astern and use a passerelle.
However if you are determined to do it in forwards, I have a few photos taken a couple of years ago in Sweden that might help. Send me a PM with your email address and I will copy them over.
Note that most of the Swedish ladders are used to step down onto low level pontoons, not onto quaysides.
When I was working out how to create a ladder for my yacht (a US Sabre 426) I found a s/s fabricator in the Hamble who made up a s/s box that bolted onto the side of my stemhead / anchor roller fitting. The box had two holes on the top, into which we inserted the hooked over tops of the ladder posts. So we went over sideways, not fore/aft. This worked extremely well.
Good luck
Peter

 

[Tranona]

Bow ladders are popular in Scandinavia and the Baltic in general because their marinas are box moorings going bow in and step down to pontoon. So their boats are designed with steps in pulpit and many have custom ladder arrangements. You can also buy aftermarket ladders from German and Swedish on line chandlers. However as already suggested, stern to mooring is almost universal in Greece, although some do go bows to and cope with the problems of boarding that you describe. It is possible to make a plank arrangement from the bow, but with the small space available and the problem of the anchor it is rarely convenient.

Suggest you go with the flow and when you get there look at how others have arranged bow access. There will always be a few. Who tolerate the inconvenience in return for the privacy in the cockpit.

 

[jordanbasset]

We had a similar arrangement to Resolution but we had a 'tophat' fitting put onto the stainless steel bar and just moved the passarelle from the stern to the bows

 

[duncan99210]

One common way of tackling this is to have a bar which slots into the bow fairleads. This then serves as a rest for the passerelle, allowing you to step over the pulpit on to the plank and thus the quay. The other common option is a socket fixed to the hull near the bow which takes either the passerelle or a custom made ladder affair. All of these entail climbing over the pulpit.

Provided your boat is reasonably steerable when going backwards, I'd moor stern to as it is a much easier option in terms of access. The only downside is a loss of privacy but we generally have quite a lot of shade tent up which mitigates that problem.

 

[Yngmar]

Various things I've seen below.

Anchor roller ladder:


Removable bow ladder that hooks into half-open pulpit and is braced on the hull below:
(from http://www.sailboat-cruising.com/sailboat-accessories.html)

Batsystem (Sweden) has a number of options for these: http://www.batsystem.se/en/stegar/stavstege

Nimue's Ladderelle (ladder/passerelle hybrid) that pivots on a single attachment point on the pulpit:
(from http://blog.mailasail.com/nimue/46)

 

[Petronella]

We used an aluminium ladder with plywood sheets attached to it on the rungs between the long sides. We drilled a hole through each long side near one end to take a 1" stainless bar. The bar was installed across the foredeck with one end sticking out to the side. We then slid the ladder onto the bar and secured with a clip.

So we ended up with a passarelle like bow ladder hinged at the boat with the other end on the dock. It worked fine and several other boats copied it. You just need to find a way to support the bar across the bow. In this respect each boat will be different but ingenuity will out!

 

[macd]

One common way of tackling this is to have a bar which slots into the bow fairleads.

A transverse bar such as that is certainly the most common bow-ladder arrengement in the Med. However, if you use regular stainless tube (1.5mm wall thickness), it will bend. Thicker- walled tube is required.

 

[Petronella]

Agreed. A bar rather than a tube is best though quite a bit heavier.

 

[macd]

Petronella: "thick-walled" tube (2.5mm, maybe 3.00mm?) is strong enough, if perhaps harder to find in some places.

My initial reaction on first reaching Gib was just how many yachts had curvy tubes lashed to their bow. (Actually my initial reaction was "What a whopping lump of rock", but you know what I mean.) I asked a local stainless chap what was best, and he put me onto the thick stuff, which never showed any signs of bending until I hit a quay with it.

 

[jordanbasset]

This is exactly the same arrangement I had on my boat, even had it fitted at the same place in Almerimar (I emphasise this is not my boat)
http://www.svsarah.com/Sailing/AtlanticCircle/Images/2006 Almerimar, Passarelle 1.JPG

If you scroll down to the bottom of this link you will see the same picture and an explanation from the owner of the boat. It is not that cheap but it is very effective and the company involved did seem to do a fair few of them.
http://www.svsarah.com/Sailing/AtlanticCircle/SailCostadelSol.htm