Now that my boat is almost out of the water for the season I've been looking at a winter project. Putting an anchor roller on her. Hunter 285s never came with an anchor roller and my back has been protesting about it. There is not much room between the bow and the anchor locker door and there is no way to access the same area from below because the anchor locker is molded into the deck. So putting a backing plate in place is out of the question. What I've decided to do is to either have a stainless steel plate made or make a thick teak plate myself that will lay atop the "L" shaped toe rails at the bow. There will be a cut out, in the center of the bracket, to get by the roller furler bracket at the bow. The plate will be bolted through the toe rails (and in turn through the "sandwiched" hull lip and deck) using the last four bolt holes (two per side) at the bow with a spacer between the plate and the toe rails. Basically I'm making a small bowsprit. I've seen a variety of photos on line of the same idea but never one on a Hunter 285. I’ve seen some ideas that involve cutting down the toe rails but I’d rather not cut into anything! To the top of this plate/bowsprit (be it wood or steel) I'm going to mount an anchor roller (Windline URM-2) to accommodate the Fortress F11 anchor. Then I'll cut a hole in the forward edge of the anchor locker door for the rode to pass through with an anchor lock to hold the chain in place when the anchor is laying in the roller. I think it will allow a much easier deployment and weighing of the anchor then trying to man handle it over the side. Sound like a good plan? If not, then let me know what you think and I'd be interested in hearing any other suggestions too. If I go with this idea and it works I plan to post photos and other details of it's construction.