Where to Put this Anchor ?

[Bright Eyes]

Ok so I currently have a 21lb Fortress with 22ft chain and 200ft of rope. The anchor sits out on the bow roller and the rode is stored in an anchor well on the deck. (I just lift the door and theres all my rode).

I just bought a 44lb Claw with 75ft of chain and 200ft of rope. There is room on the bow roller for the second anchor but how can I store the second rode? There is space fore of our vee-berth but it has pipes running around in there and the bottom is just the v shape of the boat. In the anchor well there is a removable hole on each wall as well as on the floor. This leads me to believe that I can somehow run one of the anchor rodes below?

Attached is some pictures of the bow and below the anchor well.


Also to throw a monkey wrench in this, is it possible to install a manual windlass for the Claw? I dont know where it would go since theres an anchor well and a track on deck (see pic).

What would you do?

Thanks,

[sailvayu]

I have a similar situation on my boat. I moved the anchor well drain hose on mine because they but it right in the center of the locker

I think I would make a plywood bottom and glue/glass it in. I know I will catch some flack for this but given how difficult it would be to do a decent glass job I would glue the bottom in with a polyurethane adhesive. Lowe's sells a good adhesive in the liquid nails section it will be labeled "polyurethane adhesive" and be more expensive than all the others. I have used this with good results on my boat. you could use epoxy as well, just use lots of it which ever and have a nice fillet top and bottom. And of course good surface prep is important.

As for the windlass I have seen some mounted in the anchor well itself. just have to figure out if you can find one to fit, depth of the well being the key factor.


Good Luck

[Tempest245]

is the anchor well too small to divide in half vertically...and keep both rodes up top.

I have two anchor rodes in mine, I only deploy the spade on the bow, and keep the danforth and all it's rode in the locker below my primary....

Someone here suggested dividing a locker vertically to keep the rodes seperate, I thought it was a good idea.

[forsailbyowner]

I keep one rode neatly stored at the stern for rapid deployment as a kedge in case of grounding. It can make a huge difference having one set readily available to take out with dinghy.

[Bright Eyes]

hmm, dividing the anchor well vertically is a good idea! i will just need to make sure it will all fit. Its gonna be tight. If that doesnt work then I'll try putting the plywood floor in below the anchor well.

Or maybe I can combine all these ideas and put a manual vertical windlass in the anchor well and then install the plywood floor down below and divide it vertically to create two seperate anchor lockers.

One tricky thing is how to get in that space below to install anything. From the v-berth there is just a small cabinet door that opens so I can see in there...(see pic)

[steve_hendry]

The well on my boat (which is pretty similar in size and shape to yours, I think) is divided into port and st'bd halves by a piece of 1x board. I've got the 44# Claw on a roller to port, and a Danforth hanging on the pulpit to st'bd. I have somewhat less rode to store than you do.

Also, I haven't figured out a practical place for a windlass either.

[CaptStarboard]

We keep our stern chain and rode in an old military OD green rucksack... 40' of 5/16 chain and 250' of 3/8 rode... all stuffs into the pack with room left over... then I put that in the very front of our anchor locker... This is for our stern anchor, Fortress FX-23 is mounted on the stern rail, so we just grab the bag of rode when we need to deploy the stern anchor.

The main anchor is a Manson Supreme 35lber... 210' of 5/16 chain and 300' of rode. The rode is flaked in the bottom of the anchor locker with the chain flaked on top of it... always drops nice, but you have to flake the rode and chain everytime. This anchor is either 1.) on the bow roller, 2.) ran back into the anchor locker with just the chain looping over the bale in the bow roller - (this keeps the bow clear in the pen, so we don't rub on the dock... also for when your racing and can't have an anchor protruding, but can quickly get the anchor under the pullpit and in the water)

Doesn't help you in deploying with the manual windlass, but a bag might be a good solution if you just want to keep them separate.