Peter Mohr has an extremely nice, customized First 235 that happens to be towed by an equally appealing BMW 5 Series, something you don't see too often in the States. Granted, his fin gets placed on the trailer so no ramp pulls to worry about, but still. What does this have to do with Helia's bowsprit? Zero. But the picture of his rig sitting in the mountains is hard to beat.

Peter is one of the original guys that went with the bow roller and bow cleat solution. It's actually pretty slick and Mohr thought it out. As you can see from the shots (all on page click to fullsize), Peter used aluminum tubing and reinforced the inward end to stand the pressure on the cleat. He placed the pole over the roller and used the pin as an anchor point, welding a stopper onto the pole itself. He ended up running a bob stay, using line to a clam cleat on the pole for ease.

So far, Peter's had good luck with this arrangement. Like Geronimo's solution, the pole cants to the starboard favoring that side due to the roller. I do question the strength of that end pin as it's actually broken on my roller but it seems to be working for Helia.

If he desired, he might go with a loop like the Selden unit or the unit on Geronimo, this attached to the roller bolt. It would probably be stronger than the pin solution but so far, so good. note: pics above & right link to full size. See Selden popup info link below, too

Also see Geronimo's Bowsprit Solution