Brait in Seatiger 555 Windlass

[RainDog]

I have a Seatiger with a rope/chain gypsy. Based on the sizes listed as supported in the owner’s manual, I think I have the RCB70 Gypsy. It currently has 3/8 proof coil, which works great. I tried a piece of 3/8 high test and it seems to fit even better. I am going to use 150-200' of 3/8 high test ACCO.

The owner’s manual says the rope should be "16mm (5/8 inch) diameter 3-strand nylon". I want to use 5/8 plaited nylon rope. Has anyone used this rope with this gypsy? I want to make sure it works well before buying 200' of line.

If you have, what type of rope did you use? Hard to choose between Yale Nylong Brait, Samson Deep Six, Buccaneer 8-Plait, New England Mega-plait, etc. I bet some would work better with my gypsy than others. Wondering if anyone has some advice born of experience.

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by RainDog

I have a Seatiger with a rope/chain gypsy. Based on the sizes listed as supported in the owner’s manual, I think I have the RCB70 Gypsy. It currently has 3/8 proof coil, which works great. I tried a piece of 3/8 high test and it seems to fit even better. I am going to use 150-200' of 3/8 high test ACCO.

The owner’s manual says the rope should be "16mm (5/8 inch) diameter 3-strand nylon". I want to use 5/8 plaited nylon rope. Has anyone used this rope with this gypsy? I want to make sure it works well before buying 200' of line.

If you have, what type of rope did you use? Hard to choose between Yale Nylong Brait, Samson Deep Six, Buccaneer 8-Plait, New England Mega-plait, etc. I bet some would work better with my gypsy than others. Wondering if anyone has some advice born of experience.

It might be wise to buy a few feet of the brait you have in mind and see if your gypsey will grab it. I suspect not, however, despite the diameter as brait is soft laid and very elastic and flexible compared with 3-strand. Still, an experiment would proove the pudding, no?

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by svHyLyte

It might be wise to buy a few feet of the brait you have in mind and see if your gypsey will grab it ...

Buy a long enough length to be useful (say a short dockline).

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Buy a long enough length to be useful (say a short dockline).

Good suggestion old son.

[wingontherock]

I have that same gypsy... and had to get rid of my 3/8 G-4 chain because it continually jumps out of the gypsy every foot or so... had
to drop down to 3/8 BBB to get it to work properly... be sure to try a several
feet of chain with an anchor attached before buying 200' (IMHO)

Good luck...

[RainDog]

Originally Posted by wingontherock

I have that same gypsy... and had to get rid of my 3/8 G-4 chain because it continually jumps out of the gypsy every foot or so... had
to drop down to 3/8 BBB to get it to work properly... be sure to try a several
feet of chain with an anchor attached before buying 200' (IMHO)

Good luck...

Good to know. I will have to find a 15 foot section to test.

Did the 3/8 high-test appear to fit your windlass? I tested with a 1 foot piece and it seems to fit exactly.

[wingontherock]

Yes.... It looked like an exact fit.... Till I tried
It with anchor attached.... Jumped out ever foot
Or so.... Good luck....sold my perfectly good g4 for
Buck a foot..........oh, The pain...

[GMac]

Don't waste your time with fancy rope constructions, S/L and now Lewmar windlasses have a poor record of running any of them that well. The odd one will work fine but is about 1 in 10 so in the mortal words of that great Poet Dirty Harry 'Do you feel lucky punk, well do ya?'.

Use a Samson Pro-Set laid rope. New England have one very similar which works well also. Using one of those will give you far better and reliable results, especially once the warp changes over time.

Both are a T66 grade raw yarn so have very good thermal stability. Without a long winded explanation as to just what that means, I can assure you it's a very good thing.

Basically a top end T66 multi plait works just the same as a top end laid rope. In use you should see very little, if any, difference if say you were running a Maxwell as one example, which can run both, but some gypsy designs just don't lend themselves to the multi plaits at all well, S/L, Lewmar and Muir being just 3 that don't. Don't believe all the manuals, most are wrong in the odd spot, which is pretty well known in the trade.

How do I know? I do this stuff day in day out which does include making and testing what works on what winches. I am sitting approx 5mts from 4000kg of top quality multi plaits and about 2000kg of Pro-set. If I had your winch I'd walk striaght past the multi plaits to the Pro-set, no hesitation at all.