Anchor System - Ideas?

[Dustymc]

I have a 32' double-ender of about 12000lbs displacement. The current "system" is a cute little bronze anchor roller hanging off the side of the bowsprit and a deck pipe way over to the side, entering the very rear of the anchor locker. The bowsprit passes through the bulwarks, and there's a caprail about where the chain should pass from roller to windlass.

Side view:


Top view:


Deck pipe location inside locker (chain extends vertically from pipe):


My goal is to have an anchoring system that my 110lb wife can confidently use anywhere, with enough chain to have an all-chain rode most of the time. I'm pretty open for crazy ideas about how to get there.

My preliminary scattered thoughts are this:

I need a beefy anchor roller mounted just starboard of the furler, on top of and extending past the end of the bowsprit. I don't think the roller mounted to the side of the sprit can be made strong enough, nor can the geometry be made to work.

A horizontal windlass could dump chain through the second-from-aft hole in the starboard side of the bowsprit. That would roughly center the chain pile in the anchor locker, and should line up with the roller.

I need some way to "jump" the chain over the bulwarks. Perhaps just a heavy chunk of UHMW plastic bolted to the top of the caprail could be sufficient.

I'm leaning towards a 35lb Manson Supreme and about 200' of 5/16 G4 chain, if that's somehow enlightening. We haven't decided on a windlass yet, but are leaning towards the manual Lofrans Royal, with the Tigress occasionally dominating our thoughts and certainly still in the running. We could easily be talked into something else altogether.

We can't have the only boat ever made with everything in the way of everything else. Ideas, pictures, and news of things that don't work are all greatly appreciated.

[James S]

Nice looking boat.

[Dustymc]

Thanks, James. We sure like her, but she's a bit of a basket case having spent the last 5 years tied to a dock, alone and unloved. We're slowly whittling away at the mechanical and livability issues, fortunately having no known structural issues to deal with, and have almost gotten to the point we start taking longer trips and getting to know her better. Maybe someday we'll even have time to think about things like varnish! (The bow is one of the few areas that still has any varnish.) She's our first big boat, so we're kind of all learning while we go, taking whatever help we can find along the way.

[boatman61]

Its a crying shame how many lovely old boats are suffering that fate while there's tons of beached sailors and wannabe's just dying to get hold of them but lack the initial dosh...

[Pete7]

Initial thoughts, the anchor can go anywhere, but the line of the chain going off the bow to the anchor when its blowing a hoolly warrants careful thought.

I agree with that fine chap with a kangaroo on his head, our local boat yard (not posh marina) has an interestingly collection of small yachts with outstanding fees sadly slowly turning green.

Pete

[Matt Johnson]

Great looking boat!

Off topic DustyMC, but how tall are your life lines? To my eyes, it looks like they are about three feet tall. Depending on the design, that would give a pretty secure feeling.

[Dustymc]

Pete - That's my concern - getting the whole system set up, preferably on the first try, to comfortably deal with whatever comes along. I think "blowing a hoolly" (I hope my UK/US translator works and that's not something obscene!) is where the cute little bronze roller will fail. It does however work great for dragging my CQR around the marina and looking all shippey.....

I don't know how tall the lifelines are - "lifeline height" I guess. I'll measure them when I get back to the boat later this week. (And yea, they're on the "replace-me list," albeit somewhere near the bottom.) Like pretty much everything on this boat, I'd describe their design as "stout."

[Jim Cate]

G'Day Dusty,

You have posed an interesting query, and I expect that you will get a lot of divergent opinions... here's mine:

First, as you have already noticed, a new chain pipe location will be needed. The exact spot will depend somewhat on what windlass you end up with -- horizontal or vertical axis. It is definitely a good idea to have it nearer the center of the chain locker than in the current setup.

The actual roller... hmmm! It appears that your bowsprit should be fairly stiff torsionally, so that having the roller a bit outboard should be ok. One way of doing this would be a s/s fabrication that spanned the entire width of the sprit and supported a decent sized roller outboard and raised high enough that the chain could lead directly from roller to the top of the gypsy, clearing the bulwark. Easy to say, but hard to visualize!

Anyhow, getting the roller up that way is the critical thing == means that you don't have to mess with modifying the bulwark.

Cheers,

Jim and Ann s/v Insatiable II lying Morning Cove, NSW, Oz