I do have a dorade box mounted there with a 4" deck plate opposite the cowl. I lead my deck wash through there and I can reach through, but the locker is way beyond reach-deep. I can reach through the oval deck pipe forward of the windlass to knock things down, but not quite well enough. The drill is pass the nylon 100 feet or so of rode through, then either go below and use a short boat hook we keep down there, to pull the nylon aft. (or have someone below do it). Then the chain has plenty of space to stack below the deck plate.

It's not great and seeing as how the cover to the deck plate washed overboard last summer, I may go to something new, maybe using some of your idea. It sounds good. Thanks.