The cap plate I fabricated to cover the hole left from my old bit-the-dust Sprint 400 anchor windlass worked out great. To recap, I was reluctant to go cruising with blue duct tape all over the foredeck:

So with a little help from a member of the crew, I got all the tape removed, and replaced it with my temporary cap plate. I think it looks about 1000% better than duct tape!
 

But then, once I got the anchor mounted, without the windlass taking up the slack, I realized that the inboard end of the anchor is going to bang, bang, bang against the foredeck each time I go over a wave. That is not acceptable.

After contemplating a variety of inconvenient and contraptionary wrappings and lashings, each more cumbersome than the last, I had an epiphany. Take a look at this picture:

It suddenly occurred to me that there wasn’t really any compelling reason to make the cap plate EXACTLY the size of the old windlass. No functional reason, at any rate. I like the way it looks, though.

But there is a functional reason to make the cap plate larger, especially longer: It could cushion the bang, bang, bang, preventing damage to the deck! So I’ve create a new, larger, and quite a bit uglier cap plate, which I’ll install tomorrow. It ain’t pretty, but it involved a lot less work with the table saw!