Tips for manual windlasses and hand weighing of anchor?

[Snowpetrel]

Ha, on a side note I saw a neat windlass made from a motorbike gearbox or something. FIVE speeds. Using a cockpit winch is a good idea for warp.

35lb cqr sounds a little on the small side, sounds like it works for you though.

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[TrentePieds]

TrentePieds is only a five tonner. I'd expect a 38-footer to have more than twice the displacement and, more importantly, 50% more windage to cope with when weighing anchor manually. That obviously makes a difference to the amount of Armstrong to apply, particularly as the wind comes up. But it would be a rare condition when you couldn't weigh manually by coming forward slowly on the engine end in a yot rather bigger than TrentePieds. No trick at all when you have a competent helmsman, or if you handle the helm yourself and let the mate take the foredeck. If that's your standard drill, you should teach you mate to "report" according to the traditions of the sea as the rode comes in. You can't see it from the helm, so you'll need proper, continuous reports to know what to do with rudder and engine as the rode comes in.

I keep two items of gear handy: A length of line to work a rope-stopper on the rope part of the rode if that should become necessary - which is hasn't yet - and a "devil's claw" (conventional chain hook outta an autoparts supplier on a length of line) for a chain stopper. One of these days that devil's claw is gonna save my fingers! You can clap it on the chain part of the rode in a second, and once you've done that you can take your time about sorting out a mess on deck or clearing the hook of any nast it might have brought up.

In TrentePieds SOP when setting up to weigh is to belay the running parts of the stoppers on a midships horn cleat. No reason you couldn’t just take a clove hitch around the heel of the mast. Like in painting, success in weighing generally depends on competent preparation :-)

For those who don't know our waters in B.C., remember that we have a 16 foot tidal range or thereabouts. I usually pick a spot where I'll have two foot under the keel on the low-low tide. That means that for a high-high tide during the night I have to allow 2 feet+ draft+freeboard at the roller (say 12 feet total) + 16 foot of rising water for a total of 28 ft - call it 5 fathoms - in my scope calculation. Minimum rode, therefore, on a quiet summer night in BC waters is five and twenty fathoms. If I expect a blow I go to five and thirty fathoms.

As I said before, TrentePieds’ set-up is quite amatoorish. Not a problem. To anchor I haul the required rode up on deck, measuring it the old-fashioned way twixt outstretched hands, and flake it on deck prior to paying it out.

Willy Occam is your friend :-)!

In many, many delightful coves space is at a premium in the cruising season, and room to swing is non-existent cos the convention is to tie off to shore. In many places the Provincial Parks Service furnishes rings set into the rock walls of the cove to permit you a swing-free half-fast Mediterranean moor. Or you can simply take a line ashore and make fast to a substantial log that came in on the tide eons ago. They are heavy enuff to hold you, and on beaches they lie right at the waters edge. A living tree leaning over the sheer cliff is also good.

Just make sure that you have 300 feet or so of rode for your sheet anchor and you’ll never need the sheet anchor :-)

TrentePieds

[roland stockham]

I think you problem is that the hause pipe is to small. Hand pulling slack chain as you motor up to the anchor is simple and quick but you need to be able to slip the gypse and easily pass chain below. I have a lofrans without any guides or anything else and it works fine. Make sure there is enough under the gypsy and it wont jam - ie it needs to be on a plinth

[TrentePieds]

@Roland #18

In TrentePieds, and in many other toy ships, the problem is not that the "hawse pipe" (really the "spurling pipe" that leads from the capstan to the chain locker) is too small. The real problem is that an ugly piece of big ship equipment, the capstan, has been scaled down in size to dimensions below what is reasonable and feasible and then made purty-purty to appeal to yotties and their ladies.

But in the end, its not really a problem. You can just ignore that it sits there on deck and laffs at you :-)

TrentePieds

[dagranger]

Have lived in the San Juans for 15 years and cruised from port Hardy south..Desolation sound is usually not a problem unless you anchor in what may not be a good anchorage most cove are well protected and not deep if you anchor in or near channels 150Ft will not suffice!have had to anchor in deep channels and needed most of 300 ft..used a single speed manual and would never sail without one..many times anchor and rode will get snagged on old cables and try stumps etc. left from days of major lumber cutting days..Electric windlass will not pull up your gear if tangled the purchase on manual is barely enough to do it..the two speed manuals I have seen are about 1ft and 18" respectfully..good cruising to you Don in Friday Harbor

[Greggegner]

This site sells new Seatiger 555s about $2,250 us delivered to the US...one is on my short list...

http://slspares.co.uk/parts.php?prod...r+555+Windlass



Greg S/V Sweet Dreams
Pearson P385 out of Racine Wisconsin

[Cheechako]

I guess electric is not for everyone, but if I had to spend more than just a used price for a SL manual, I'd just go electric. I've had 5 electrics over the years. Only 1 was a new one I put on. The rest came with the boat I bought. Never had a failure. reliable and easy to use.
The SL windlasses corrode pretty bad. paint on aluminum, not the best approach for something on the foredeck.
If buying a manual I would definitely look to see what else is out there.

[Tessellate]

Originally Posted by roland stockham

I think you problem is that the hause pipe is to small. Hand pulling slack chain as you motor up to the anchor is simple and quick but you need to be able to slip the gypse and easily pass chain below. I have a lofrans without any guides or anything else and it works fine. Make sure there is enough under the gypsy and it wont jam - ie it needs to be on a plinth

I don't have a hawse pipe. The Simpson Lawrence windlasses have a chain guide that is integral to the unit, below the windlass gypsy. You can see photos on Google Image Search. I could try cutting that off, but it's pretty thick aluminum, and then I have to drill through the 2" thick fiberglass platform inside the anchor locker that it's mounted on.

[Ribbit]

Originally Posted by Tessellate

The marine equipment market for manual windlasses sucks though. There are basically only 2 brands, one of which isn't manufactured anymore (Simpson Lawrence):

"Seatiger 555 Windlass is a heavy duty manual windlass, some parts can be ordered directly from this site. The complete windlass is also available, please enquire from the contact page."

Parts for Seatiger 555 Windlass | Simpson Lawrence Yacht Parts & Spares

Hope that helps . . .

[Snowpetrel]

I think the word your after is spurling pipe. That's what's causing the issue being too small. A chain pawl on the bow roller makes pulling the anchor up hand over hand very easy, and lets you "rest" and position between each pull. It also makes things mug safer by stopping the chain from snatching in a seaway or in strong winds. It needs to be built strong, and we'll designed to catch and release smoothly without adding extra friction. My old one was attached to the retaining bolt above the anchor roller.

With one of these and maybe a smooth guide to feed the chain into the spurling pipe, it would make life much easier.

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[Wotname]

FWIW and for anyone interested, I will be selling my Muir VMC 500 manual windlass / capstan any moment soon. Very good condition, has 5/16" (8mm) /14 mm chain/rope gypsy. Recently removed to fit an electric version.

[Snowpetrel]

Just checked my sl555 ratios are roughly 2:1 on low and 1:2 on high, so it recovers about 4 times faster on high gear than low gear. The PO, thought the low gear was too low for most stuff. Sounds like their original sl556 had a higher low gear, maybe more like 1:1?

It sure seems like it would get an anchor up pretty quickly in high gear. I haven't used mine yet. Still tossing up between an electric and this 555.

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[Panope]

I just (like 5 minutes ago) retrieved 105 feet of 3/8" chain and a 33 pound anchor with a Simpson Lawrence 555. I used the high speed actuator and was on the telephone the whole time so I used ONE hand only.

Total time to retrieve anchor = 3 minutes, 15 seconds.

Steve

[Snowpetrel]

Cool, take it we have a sarca video in the making! Looking forward to your latest. Cheers

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[Mike OReilly]

I just noticed this thread so sorry if this is not helpful, but my 15-ton (30,000#) boat has an old Plath/ABI bronze single-speed, double-action manual windlass. We have all-chain 3/8", and my bower is a 55# Rocna. So far we usually anchor in less than 30' but on rare occasions we've set in 50'+.

I know it's not as fast, or sometimes as easy as an electric, but after six years of seasonal coastal cruising where we anchor out all the time, I've yet to encounter any unsurmountable, or even major, problem with my setup. It doesn't take much effort. It just takes a bit of time.

My morning ritual for hauling anchor is to wonder out to the bow with my second coffee, and start hauling up to about 3:1, depending on wind/sea conditions. Once my spouse is ready at the helm she fires up the diesel, and we finish the final rode/anchor retrieval. Takes a bit of time, but as a cruiser I'm usually rich with this resource.

BTW, I did purchase a good used SL-555 a couple of years ago from someone here at CF. My intention is/was to swap out my Plath b/c I like the two-speeds of the SL. But the damn Plath just keeps working well. Someday I'll swap it out... maybe.