How do you secure the line when you give someone a tow? Stand on it in the cockpit? Snub it to a mooring cleat? Wrap it around a stanchion or around the mast? We did, until we built a proper samson post.

In addition to its role in towing, the post is handy for securing anchor lines, and both bow and stem anchors can be led through fairleads to the post. A properly installed post will also reinforce the deck and provide structural support.

Location and height of the post depend on the size and layout of each particular boat and deck. The post should not be so tall that it dominates the deck area, and it should be designed with fatrleads both fore and aft to protect cap rails. A post can be very short and stilt work effectively, and shorter posts are stronger.

Workboats commonly have towing bitts located aft, in the cockpit or closer to the operator. But lazarette bulkheads aft are also a likely location, as are cockpit sides. Samson posts or towing bitts don't have to be located on the centerline. So long as you provide fairleads to position the line on center, fore and aft, the post can be located anywhere on the deck (Fig. 1), assuming there is room, the possibility of arranging a good bracing system, and no interference with the operation of sail control lines or other on deck jobs. If you can keep the post out of walkways on a large deck, it will hopefully never become a hazard.

Posts and bitts are traditionally oak or hardwood, but even softwoods like fir make good posts when sealed with epoxy. Larger posts can be laminated for more strength and to allow use of cheaper, standard-sized wood. Two 2 x 4s laminated together will make a post with a top 3 inches square, and leave plenty of room for making a taper in the part of the post below deck. The taper is important to provide flexibility and shock-absorbing motion to the post to prevent breaking under a sudden strain (Fig. 2). We've seen posts as small as 2 inches square on top, which is probably just about the smallest practical size. This doesn't allow much taper, but the small size will probably provide flexibility anyway.

Round all sharp comers on the post, both above and below-decks. A wood rasp will help in the corners, and a block plane will make the edge cuts. This provides a pleasing shape and your lines will stay healthier. It will also do less damage if you bang your head into the postwhile rummaging in the forepeak.

We laminate our larger posts with epoxy, and also use epoxy as a final seal coating. Three coats protect the wood very well. You'll need a few coats of sunscreen varnish over that if you leave the wood natural. The end grain on top has to be protected in some way; sheet lead or brass, tacked in place around the top, can provide traditional-looking protection.

If you want to stick a pin through the top of the post to help in securing lines, old bronze keel bolts work very well. Drill the hole just slightly oversize, clean and file the bolt to rough up the surface, and glue it in place with epoxy. One operation will seal the wood and secure the pin in place. Round the corners of the pin to keep them from barking your shins, and you're in business.

Samson posts can be used on fiberglass, wood, or metal hulls. The post should be attached at the bottom by mortising a notch into the keel or by bolting to a floor timber (Fig. 3 ). A bulkhead or a forepeak sole can also be used to support a post but should be solid and tight. A post can also be attached belowdecks to a bulkhead, and in this case might as well be cut short since almost all flexibility is lost anyway. Make sure the bulkhead is well secured around its perimeter. The post may, at one time or another, take a lot of shock, fore and aft and athwartships, and you should prepare accordingly.

In fiberglass hulls without obvious methods for bracing, it may be necessary to epoxy glue a partial bulkhead in place to provide support to the post. Epoxy will also glue plywood to aluminum hulls, provided the aluminum surface is properly sanded, etched, and cleaned beforehand. We have attached full and partial bulkheads to aluminum hulls using epoxy and fillets of silica and microballoons.

The post should ideally lay against a deck beam where it passes through the deck, but this isn't always possible to arrange; then doublers are the next best method of support (Fig. 4). Plywood makes the best doublers, on fiberglass and wood decks, and has much better resistance to splitting than timber cleats. Plywood will also bend slightly to conform to the shape of the deck. You may wish to use laminations of thin ply instead of a single thicker lamination to allow it to bend easier.

The doubters should rest on timber cleats, screwed and glued into the post (Fig. 5). Since these cleats will be primary support members for the deck, they should be strong and run entirely around the post. (For purposes of illustration, the cleats are only shown on two sides of the post.) When cutting the hole in the deck for the post, it's best to cut slightly oversize, at least a sixteenth on each side, to allow for a good epoxy seal of wood edge grain or fiberglass, and for the silicone seal caulking. It's important to seal this area carefully to prevent rot and to keep raw fiberglass matrix from soaking up moisture and weakening. After a thorough seal, the post can be installed using silicone or polyurethane caulk around the post for watertightness and gap filling. It's best to form a small fillet of caulk around the post using your Finger. You can shape this silicone fillet by wearing apair of rubber gloves. After you make the fillet, .get away and don't pester it, let it kick and then trim the excess with a sharp razor blade.

The after face of the samson post is a good location for a chain snubber, which must be tailored to your particular size and type of chain (Fig. 6). The slot should be wide enough to easily accept a link of your chain, held vertical, while the next link will lay horizontal and very effectively lock the chain in place. Stainless steel or bronze plate 0/16 inch or Uinch) will work very well. All edges should be well rounded and the flat-head screw fastenings should be countersunk flush with the surface.

A snubber makes it possible to handle heavy lengths of chain even without a winch. The snubber can be useful in breaking out a stubborn anchor in rough water, since you can take all the slack possible, then let the motion of the boat jerk the anchor from the bottom. The rougher the water, the better this works. An efficient bow roller, with a free rolling large diameter wheel (Fig. 7), makes pulling the anchor much easier by eliminating friction over the gunwale or dragging through a fairlead.