Windlass anchor

[Juppy]

Hi, I’ve got a 2007 2100sc3. I love it! I’ve recently hurt my back and it’s a real struggle to pull up the anchor. Has anyone tried to install a windlass system into the hatch for anchor rope? I’m looking at a Muir DW08. It’s a tight squeeze, looking at the specs, so I’m hesitant to proceed without some more support or the involvement of a shipwright. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[mmwjr]

Welcome aboard.

Mounting a windless onto the anchor locker hatch will but a lot of stress on the catch and hinges which may fail over time. The folks I’ve seen do this have glass it closed and then reinforced the area but they still had access from within the cabin of their boats.

[jparsons121]

Agreed...Even a small windlass would be rated at 5-700 lbs. That pull force would be transferred directly to the deck (or hatch).. I can picture the it ripping the hatch right off the boat, windlass and all...

In addition, any windlass will also call out a min vertical drop for it to work properly. Vertical usually require more drop than a horizontal model.

Just some things to think about.

[shrew]

Look for a Horizontal windlass. The entire windlass and motor will be above deck, however it feeds the anchor line through a hawse into the anchor locker. I would mount it so that the anchor locker can still be opened from the deck to clear tangles.

I'd include one with a helm switch to ease operation.

[Juppy]

Thanks guys for your prompt responses! So in a nut shell, I’d be looking into a horizontal (drum) winch. If it was to fit into the hatch compartment for anchor storage as I’d like it too, I’d be needing to reinforce the base. If It doesn’t fit, then I’d need to consider glassing off the hatch door and deck mounting. Then I’d need to make an access panel to get to chain storage. Not sure if I’d have enough drop but for this application though. Sorry, hope I’m not going round in circles here?

[mmwjr]

Can you post a picture of the forward deck? What is being suggest is to mount the windless just forward of the anchorlocker on solid deck and then the rode can fall into the locker.

[shrew]

Originally Posted by Juppy

Thanks guys for your prompt responses! So in a nut shell, I’d be looking into a horizontal (drum) winch. If it was to fit into the hatch compartment for anchor storage as I’d like it too, I’d be needing to reinforce the base. If It doesn’t fit, then I’d need to consider glassing off the hatch door and deck mounting. Then I’d need to make an access panel to get to chain storage. Not sure if I’d have enough drop but for this application though. Sorry, hope I’m not going round in circles here?

You might be over-engineering this. There are three basic types of windlass:
Horizontal, Vertical, Drum. You're image is of a Drum, where the entire rode wraps around the drum. A Horizontal and a Vertical Windlass dump the rode into the anchor locker.

A Vertical Windlass keeps the Gypsy above deck and the motor and gearbox below deck inside of the anchor locker. IF the anchor locker is too small, then going with a horizontal windlass is a better idea. The Vertical windlass has a smaller profile on deck, but takes up anchor locker space. The Horizontal doesn't take any locker space, but is larger on deck.

With a drum, the entire windlass along with the drum and all of the rode is up on deck and no anchor locker is used at all. This is by far the biggest and ugliest solution. That is something you'd see on a commercial boat.

You woulnd't want to mount a windlass on your locker hatch. You would need need to do structure and fiberglass reinforcement to turn that hatch back into a deck if you wanted to mount a windlass on the hatch. You would still need a way into the anchor locker to free any jams (which do happen). This would be a significant project and to ensure it doesn't look like a kluge, will likely be pricey. (At that point, you might be better finding a boat with a windlass and pulpit set-up.)

Ideally, you would mount the windlass in such a way that it can feed rode into the locker and still allow you to use the existing locker hatch to access the space.