The best manual windlass question

[MJH]

Originally Posted by AmzngGrace

So... ANYONE who has spent time with a manual windlass I got a question. Lets say that 5:1 scope gives you ~200 feet of rode in 40’ of water. Lets say you have all chain 5/16”. Lets say that the hawsepipe (sp?) is under the windlass. OK now your done and want to pull up the anchor... You motor the boat till anchor is ~vertical, which takes up about ~160’ of chain pretty quickly and is done without much fanfare. Now, what is the situation? Did you manually use the windlass for that 160’ of chain to put it away or did you hand over hand the chain then put it into the locker? To me, both options have issues. The former means that it took you about 27 minutes to winch the chain into the pipe, (~1 foot every 10 seconds = 6 feet every minute. 160 feet/6=26.7 minutes). Alternative to this is bringing it up hand over hand quickly to deck which will impact the gel coat and then you have to stick the chain into the little hole under the windlass and spend quite a lot of time getting that chain in there. Either option then precedes the real reason you want the windlass which is to break the anchor loose and bring up the last 40 feet (at about 1 foot every 10 secs = 6.7 minutes). I get that I approximated the rate of 1 foot every 10 sec but still seems like it will take along time for a common depth of 40 feet and either time to pump the chain into the locker or damage to gel coat plus time still to get the chain into the hawsepipe.
I know we have alot of time on our hands but 30 minutes for 40 feet?
Am I missing something?

The other side of the coin is the weight. 40 feet of 5/16 BBB weighs 44 lbs. PLUS the weight of the anchor...a notional 25 lb. Danforth for a 37' boat brings the total to 69 lbs.; that's a lot of weight to hand-over-hand. My numbers are even bigger than that and the reason the first major upgrade to my new-to-me boat was an electric windlass.

~ ~ _/) ~ ~ MJH

[Knollwood]

I am looking for a Simpson- Lawrence Seatiger 555 Manual Windlass. Must be in gods working condition.
Are there any out there for sale?

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Knollwood

I am looking for a Simpson- Lawrence Seatiger 555 Manual Windlass. Must be in gods working condition.
Are there any out there for sale?

This is what I would recommend for anyone looking for a manual windlass. They are available on the used market. You can also buy them new, but I think it's a special order, and therefore pricey.

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

I actually have a spare Seatiger555 on board my boat. I bought it used a few years ago as a backup to my bronze Plath version. But since my old bronze baby has never let me down, I might be selling my it.

Unfortunately, due to the pandemic restrictions, I've not been able to get to my boat in over a year and a half. Hopefully this summer...