Mahe 36: Anchor and Windlass

[Scott730]

Martin
Thanks, that was a very good explaination and now I can "see" how you did it.

Lori
I two use the engines to position the boat while the "admiral" works the windlass. If you don't do this you will scrap the hulls bring up the chain once the bridal is removed. Even flaring the metal or pinning the chain in the "trough"/roller won't prevent messing up the hulls if you don't keep the boat positioned right.

Scott

[MKB53]

The good thing about this thread is that we all seem to have had similar issues and there is great feedback on them.

I have been racking my brains to think of a way around the anchor retrieval issue. You should use the engines anyway otherwise you stress the winch but the fact that it does not easily swing back and can damage the hulls bothers me.

Regarding the toilet/backflow issues. I am planning to put a Jabsco electric conversion on the toilet as you have to have a mascerator in Queensland. These units are really neat (but costly) and are just bolt on replacements for the manual pump fitting. I like the simplicity and the fact that you could always fit the manual again if anything breaks.

Does anyone have any experience of these units? The alternative is to replace the whole bowl with an electric one which is the same cost but not as elegant a solution.

At least either solution should stop the backflow!

Cheers
Martin

[DtM]

Lori,

I think that the chain pulling to one side can really only be properly controlled using the motors. Sure it is a two person job (or you wait as the boat swings back and forth) but the damage that you will cause and the stress on the windlass makes taking the time worth it.

As I have said in a previous post, you should ensure that the "driver" sees what the issue is so that they understand the directions from the windlass operator.

my 2 cents.

[jean1146]

Hello everyone.
Yes raising the Anchor on a real windy day can be a pain,I leave my wife at the controls,and direct her with my arm always telling her in which direction the bows have to point,I always wait untill my chain is hanging strait down to start activate the windlass,works very well that way. No screaming,noyelling at each others,just a smooth operation.....well almost!
JC.

[Talbot]

Originally Posted by jean1146

Hello everyone.
Yes raising the Anchor on a real windy day can be a pain,I leave my wife at the controls,and direct her with my arm always telling her in which direction the bows have to point,I always wait untill my chain is hanging strait down to start activate the windlass,works very well that way. No screaming,noyelling at each others,just a smooth operation.....well almost!JC.

If the angle of the arm in the horizontal points in the direction of the chain, you can use the angle of the vertical to indicate whether the boat needs to be moved in the direction of the chain, in order to help the windlass, whether the chain is almost in the right place, or whether it is close underfoot, and the boat needs to back off slightly. worked on a frigate, so I am sure it will work on a small craft.

[Cotemar]

Mahe's,

Finally added a Fortress FX 23 as a 2nd Anchor to launch from the dink or from the bow cross beam roller.
Fortress FX 23
40 feet of G4 chain
150 feet of 5/8 inch 8 stranded plaited rode.
The anchor weighs 15 lbs and the rode bucket weighs 59 lbs
I should be able to set it up in just a few minutes.

Mark

[Cotemar]

Mahe's,

After my first slip in the anchor locker and a bout of high pitched vocals from the pain. I felt that an Anchor Locker step was in order.

Purchased some www.tufboard.net from Home Depot an screwed it together and added some 3M No Skid tape to the top of it and also on the down slop of the locker it self where my foot would normally fall.

Now I have no problem moving around the anchor locker even when it’s wet.

Mark

[Cotemar]

Mahe's,

Since I was working on the Anchor Locker improvements and the First Mate was tired of holding the hatch open. I decided to add an Anchor locker Gas Spring to hold the hatch open. Purchased it from www.spdhardware.com it’s an All Stainless Steel Gas Spring
# SPD-GSSX-2300-60 which has a 60 lb force for $58.
It works perfect and has just the right amount of force. Added it to the back of the locker so it would not get in the way.

Mark

[Wayward Wind]

Guys

A word of warning about your bow rollers: last week Sydney was hit by a dust storm for the first time in history. Winds probably gusted up to low 30s. On Saturday, I went to check on our Mahe 36. It was gusting up to 33 kts while I was there. No waves to speak of, but the boat was swinging constantly on her mooring.

Good thing I checked on the boat because the bow roller had sheared off, and the mooring rope was sweeping over the broken bits of rivet, back & forth constantly, and was badly chafed by the time I saw the damage.

Have any of you guys encountered this problem, or done anything to make the roller more secure?

JohnC

[DtM]

Thanks John,

We spent the weekend on the boat up in Pittwater/Refuge Bay and it certainly was windy.

I must say I thought that there was plenty of shearing pressure on the bowroller but nothing seemed amiss. I will check next weekend.

daniel

[Scott730]

John and Daniel,
How are you two using the bowroller when you are on a mooring? Am I confusing an anchoring with a mooring ball? Here we don't use the bowroller at all except as a last resort. We use it for a "Bahamian mooring" with 2 anchors, or before we grab a mooring (ball). For a mooring ball, we have prepared 2 lines secure at each port and starboard bow cleats. We then grab the mooring ring and tread either the port or starboard line through the mooring eye and secure it back to the cleat it was tied to, then we do the same thing with the other line.
Now the boat is secure via a bridal and can be adjusted as needed at each cleat. It really cuts down on chafe. As a back up, I tie a third line to the mooring ball and secure that one through the roller and back to the cleat in the anchor locker, leaving some slack in this line, allowing the bridal to do its job. We have been in some serious storms on a mooring ball (winds in the 45 to 50 knot range) in the Bahamas, we have seen many a mooring ball break free. The maintanance on some is questionable, so I dive on the questionable ones to check and secure a line on the chain itself.

Scott

[colemj]

Wow, that is a weak roller poorly connected with a few threads worth of small bolts. You should not use that roller setup for any load at all except maybe to store the anchor. Any connection to a mooring ball or anchor rode should be taken by a bridle connected to more substantially mounted cleats.

Mark

[Scott730]

John and Daniel
I was on my boat today and check my bow roller, as I suspected, mine is welded to the cross beam. No screws or bolts.

Scott

[Wayward Wind]

Scott, Mark
Yes, I use a mooring ball. Thanks for the tips on setting a bridle. I spoke to the guy who does the moorings, and have asked him to cut below where the rope had chafed, splice a loop and attach two separate mooring lines to it, which I will use as a bridle. I will also secure a third line like Scott on to the cleat where the anchor is, which I can lock for security.
Scott, can you please PM or post a pic of how you have set up your bridle? I take it that it is something that stays on your boat which you use when you tie up to a mooring ball?
I am also getting the bow roller glued, then bolted on to the beam with bigger bolts. I cannot understand why FP did not weld ours on like Scott's.

JohnC

[Scott730]

JohnC
I use 5/8 or 3/4 inch rope for the mooring bridal. When I know I'm going to grab a ball I tie the 2 ropes one to each bow cleat. The ropes are 50' long so when I loop the rope back to the same cleat I have about 25' length of looped rope running from the moorings eye to the cleat, now I have one side secured to the ball, I pull that side up tight so I can reach the mooring eye with the other 50' rope and then loop it thru the mooring eye and back to the cleat it was tied to and secure it. I then adjust the 2 lines to center the mooring on the boat. Since you have 2 lines independantly attached to the moorings eye then you will not have the mooring sliding along your bridal and you cut down on chafe a lot. and you'll sleep a lot better knowing if one line does come loose the other one is still attached. Moorings here have multiple eyes to tie up to. So I use an eye further down the rope to attach the 3rd "safety" line which passes thru the bowroller to the chain locker, so if the primary eye chafes thru I'm still connected with the safety line, this has saved us at least once in the past.
Hope this helps. I'm not at a mooring right now so I can't take a picture for you. PM me if you need more info.

Scott