Hand Raising your Anchor

[sailorboy1]

Atoll on another thread asks:

"it would be interesting to find out how many out of the posters can actually lift their anchor by hand from 30ft of water in the event of their windlass failing,and what their back up plan is in the event of a failure ."

[Sailmonkey]

No problem. I don't want to make a habit of it though.
We came in with a bigness of 1.09, it's a 35 lb hook with 5/16" chain. So from 30' I lift 65 lbs, just like throwing 8 sacks of feed into the bed of the truck.

[motion30]

I hand.pull a 45 lb mnson with 40" of 3/8"" chain. Pull the boat overtop and.heave. gloves help

[estarzinger]

I voted yes, in fact I have done it from 60' depth, using the genoa winches. . . . Easy. And I would think pretty much any sail boat can do it (using sheet or halyard winches).

On a power boat, where manal winches are not so common, it would be more difficult. But if you have a block and tackle, which many power boats have somewhere, you can still lift quite heavy objects.

[conachair]

Done it, not much fun.

Solo and engineless for a few weeks, manual windlass bust on the same day as the engine leaving Suriname. Worst was Man o War bay in Tobago, 40' deep, 20Kg anchor & 10mm chain, whatever that is in old money. Tucked in near the cliffs so fitful little gusts of wind.

Leapfrogging lines to the winches on the mast rolling hitched to the chain to get the most of it up then the last bit hand over hand. Seem to remember nearly being sick Then took hours to get the boat out into the wind again with little gusts every few minutes. Wasn't a fun day.
After that i sailed over to Trini, bought an electric windlass and fixed an engine

A big downside in not having a button to press is that you'll tend to let a little less chain out or not move a soon as you would having some electric to do the work.

[atoll]

thanks don for reposting!

with this in mind when i built my 63ft alloy yacht, i also built 2 x 95lb bugle anchors that give a bigness factor of 1.6.

one is all chain,10mm,and their is no way one person could get it up from 30 ft without a windlass.

the other is on 1' polyester three strand and is fairly easy to raise once it is broken out by hand.

as kedges i have a 60lb cqr and 60lb brittany(danforth type) with 40 ft of chain then 3/4 line,these are fairly easy to set and retrive from the dinghy if nessacary

[nautical62]

My Hunter 30 doesn't have a windlass. When going solo, getting the anchor up on a windy day can be the biggest challenge. It require lot of running back and forth.

I've never had to do it, but on a bigger boat if the manual option wouldn't work for some reason, I'd probably snorkel down to the anchor, clip it with some other rope and use some other winch on board.

[dannobee]

I have a powerboat which currently doesn't have a windlass, but I do use the boat to scuba dive. Part of the ritual is, at the end of the dive and just before ascending up the anchor line, is to attach a lift bag to the anchor. Then it gets inflated with just enough air to get the anchor and a few feet of chain off of the bottom (30 ft of chain). As I start pulling the rode in, the lift bag's air will expand more, floating the anchor, chain, and rode to the surface. Easy Peasy.

One could keep one tank and scuba gear and a lift bag to descend down the anchor line to free the anchor if fouled and attach a lift bag to raise the anchor if in a pinch.

[Cormorant]

I voted yes, but we're sort of a special case. No windlass, light boat (5000 lb. fully loaded), a 24-lb Manson Supreme with 20 feet 1/4" G4 chain and the rest 1/2" nylon rode. My wife usually hauls it up.

[ohdrinkboy]

I do it all the time....16lbs

[Kettlewell]

45 lb anchor, 5/16" chain, I pull it in by hand every time if I can as part of my exercise routine. Works up into the mid 20-knot range and after that I usually have to use the windlass for part of the way. Many times I can only get over the anchor and need to use the manual windlass for breaking it out, but then I hand pull it to the surface. However, if you have to re-anchor four or five times quickly in deep water it can get pretty tiring. One of my selection criteria on a cruising boat is to be able to set and pull the anchor by hand routinely, and I don't think I would want to go bigger than my current set up.

You have to envision doing this for week after week, maybe months in some places. There are lots of cruising areas where a busted windlass is not going to get fixed for a long time unless you have all the replacements onboard. Saw lots of folks down in the San Blas Islands with busted windlasses, and there are a fair number of deep anchorages there.

[minaret]

Absolutely no way anyone is raising any of my anchor gear by hand. But I do have power primaries as well as big secondaries. Windlass failure=no problem here.

[Sailormantx]

On my last boat did it by hand all the time 5/16 chain and 33lb anchor, did not have a windlass, just a pair of gloves. Now, 66lb anchor and 3/8 chain and a dozen more birthdays...it doesn't come up without the windlass.

[cheoah]

I remember the first time I used my manual windlass on my new to me Crealock 34. I just chuckled at how little advantage it provided! I weigh anchor by hand nearly every time with 35 lb anchor and 5/16 chain. I've had to use the autopilot to idle me up to the anchor in breezy conditions.

I'd get a nice windlass if I could afford it, but for now it's heave ho and a bottle of rum

[Liam Wald]

I had my windlass fail mid cruise a few years back. The part was not available in the USA and had to be special ordered from the UK (Lewmar) 4 weeks.
That first day was a bitch having to haul in 200 feet of 5/16 chain with a 45 lb Rocna by hand. After that I switched to 30 feet of chain and a 22lb Delta until the part arrived.