[C320-list] Anchor Windlass Capability
Gary Magnuson
gary.magnuson at frontier.com
Thu Jul 12 09:47:42 PDT 2012
Hi,
I guess ignorance is bliss, but on my 1995, I have been regularly
raising the anchor rode and chain using the smooth drum, with seemingly
no problems. I did make a anchor splice between rode and the chain to
get rid of the nylon eye and shackle, which makes the drum happy during
the transition. I am controlling the tension on the drum by hand, but
letting the winch do all of the work. Perhaps I will someday need to
replace the drum if the chain destroys the surface. I hope I haven't
made a big mistake.....
Gary
Time A Weigh #205
On 7/12/2012 11:26 AM, Gene Helfman wrote:
> Thanks for bringing this up. We're in final negotiations on a 1997 320
> with "upgraded" ground tackle: 40 lb plow and 50 ft of larger chain than
> standard. So we will need to replace the Maxwell 500 with a larger, more
> powerful windlass that has both rope and chain capability (granted, as
> Dennis noted, we could power up to the chain and get away with a chain
> donkey only). Has anyone upgraded to something along these lines?
>
> thanks,
>
> gene
>
> On Thu, Jul 12, 2012 at 8:50 AM, Dennis Harris <dharris02 at suddenlink.net>wrote:
>
>> As I understand it, the anchor windlass is not to be used to pull the boat
>> towards the anchor location when taking in the anchor. If the wind or
>> current is high, doing so would put lots of force on the windlass and
>> probably trip it out. But if there isn’t much wind, it would seem that
>> there wouldn’t be much force. The windlass supplied on our boats has a
>> smooth drum and no gypsy for chain, and as I understand it, the chain
>> should not be used on the smooth drum. My guess is that many, like me,
>> have nylon rode with a relatively small amount of chain at the anchor.
>> Taking in the nylon rode when there is no strain on it (because boat is
>> being powered forward) is easy to do by hand and power assist is not
>> needed. Picking up the bitter end with the chain and anchor (assuming we
>> have already broken out the anchor using boat movement instead of anchor
>> windlass pull) can/will be relatively difficult and power assist would be
>> helpful, but the windlass (as delivered on boat) is not setup to handle
>> chain. So, it seems that we have this nice piece of equipment that really
>> isn’t available when there is some heavy lifting to do.
>> What am I missing?
>> How do most owners use the windlass?
>> And, most importantly, what is the line pull, in pounds, that can be
>> successfully applied to the anchor rode, or other line, using the windlass
>> without damaging windlass or tripping it out electrically?
>> I don’t anchor out often, as you can tell, and when I do, it is in shallow
>> water, so I have done it by hand without the windlass in the past. But as
>> 73 approaches, the idea of picking up a 33 lb. Bruce anchor and 20 ft. of
>> chain seems less and less attractive.
>> Thanks for you guidance.
>> Dennis Harris C320 #694
>>
>
>
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