Thanks for the comments so far. One thing I should perhaps have clarified is the intended use of the boat. We probably won't be doing a lot of short-course buoy racing, but may be doing some longer distance racing, perhaps shorthanded. And we'll be doing more cruising and passage-making than racing, anyway. So facilitating quick sets and drops when rounding marks is not a priority, and we probably won't have so many crew hiking out that they have to sit so far forward that they'll be sitting on the pole (if outboard). Rather, having a fair lead for anchor rode, mooring pennants, and docklines, and having quick access to the bow cleat(s) IS important.
Duncan raises a good point about having more than one bow cleat. So what about
three bow cleats?
For one possibility, I would leave the 4-bolt 10-inch cleat in the middle where shown, and put a 2-bolt 8-inch cleat (the original equipment) out on the either side, right on the rail, somewhere a bit aft of the skene chocks. Actually, these would be
in lieu of the slotted toerail, which I would cut short. The center cleat would be used for anchor rodes, mooring pennants, and forward dock lines, while the side cleats could be used for breast lines or spring lines.
A couple of other things to note: (1) The forward supports for the bow pulpit come down just inside the skene chocks. They partially block the channels of the anchor rollers, but there is still plenty of room for the anchor shank, chain, and rode to pass. Unfortunately, there is not enough room for a pole to pass through one of the channels for use as a sprit. (2) The holes in the deck at the bottom center of the picture, aft of the cleat, are for a padeye that will support an inner forestay, and marks the forward end of a center track.
My bow is so narrow and pointy, there's just not a lot of room up there!
FWIW, the deck is glued and screwed over an inward hull flange, fiberglassed over on the inside, and then bolted together on 4" centers with the 1/4" machine screws that fasten the slotted aluminum toerail. Many, but not all, of the screws were removed when the toerail was bolted on. The bolts for the skene chocks and side cleats would substitute for the toerail bolts in holding the deck onto the hull in this area.
With respect to the spinnaker pole placement, keep in mind that the chainplates and shrouds are inboard, so the inboard pole position leaves the most room for passing the rigging, although I agree that it makes foot placement trickier on the foredeck. Here I've rigged some lines to simulate the shrouds:
To really make the inboard placement work well, I think I need to move the forward chock inboard, until the pole just passes the deck hatch:
Of course up at the bow this makes things a bit tight. I can move the big cleat forward a bit, and upgrading to new-design deck chocks that appear to have a smaller footprint than my old chocks, might help too. With this inboard placement, I can't move the pole any further aft without interfering with the genoa tracks...
As an alternative for the outboard placement, I might be able to skooch the pole forward enough, and perhaps move the stanchion aft a bit, so that I could mount a togglepin directly to the stanchion to hold the socket end of the pole, doing away with the after deck chock, and moving the pole a bit further outboard (at least at the aft end), thus leaving the side deck more open for passage. A problem with this would be lining the pole up to get it on the pin, without the side walls of the chock. Also, skooching the pole forward would interfere with the side bow cleat on the port side....
As for storing the pole up against the mast, that would certainly be convenient. The drawbacks are the increased weight and windage aloft, which is of some concern to me. In addition, Forespar strongly recommends storing the pole on deck in heavy weather...
