Chain Jamming in Windlass

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by GMac

But before you do that give the stripper arm a good looking over to make sure it's still OK and fixed in place well. Some of the S/L ones were a tad on the limp side and prone to doing things they shouldn't have.

The stripper looks pretty chewed up. Is it suppose to go all the way into the center of the gyspy? The last time it jammed not only did I have to pry the chain out of the gyspy but I had to pry the stripper out also.

[yachtman]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

The stripper looks pretty chewed up. Is it suppose to go all the way into the center of the gyspy? The last time it jammed not only did I have to pry the chain out of the gyspy but I had to pry the stripper out also.

The stripper needs to be robust enough to break the chain out from the drum. By the fact you had to pry the stripper out says it is not strong enough.

Usually the stripper sits in a slot in the centre of the gipsy and extends up to the axle centre.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

The stripper looks pretty chewed up. Is it suppose to go all the way into the center of the gyspy? The last time it jammed not only did I have to pry the chain out of the gyspy but I had to pry the stripper out also.

A photo would be nice

in FOCUS

LARGE size

With a girl in it!

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

A photo would be nice

in FOCUS

LARGE size

With a girl in it!

where am I going to find a girl of the right size to put in the anchor locker to be able to get all the required items in the picture? ................... or since you are getting lonely you just want pictures of girls (nothing worng with this I just need to plan).

Oh - and the large size, is that for the picture or the girl?

[zeehag]

lol for mark, gurl, for rest of us, pic...

[Jim Cate]

Mark, if I read that correctly, poor ol' Don has to go out and find a female stripper small enough to fit into his chain locker... pretty tough specs, mate! Most strippers have certain measurements that wouldn't easily fit into my chain locker.

Cheers

[Capitain Mike]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

You know it didn't occur to me that the chain and gypsy might not be matched as the boat came this way (used) when I got it. It seems to fit together well, is there a way to verify for a discontinued windlass?

The windlass doesn't have any pin (a vertical Simpson Lawerance Spirt Altantic). It has a plastic arm that I think is suppose to strip the chain off the back side of the gyspy. This arm just gets forced into the gyspy teeth (I don't know if it is a cause or an effect of the problem).

Plastic arm is just to stop your fingers meeting the chain. and strip off the chain or rope try this, http://www.boatered.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=140483 it might help

[Capitain Mike]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Mark, if I read that correctly, poor ol' Don has to go out and find a female stripper small enough to fit into his chain locker... pretty tough specs, mate! Most strippers have certain measurements that wouldn't easily fit into my chain locker.

Cheers

Given the correct stripper I would increase the size of my locker Lol

[Capitain Mike]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

OK 5 times anhoring with my "new" boat and 2 times the chain has jammed in the windlass on the way up. And the second time I'm 125% positive that it wasn't due to the chain bunching up in the anchor well so that it couldn't drop.

The chain just seems to wrap around the windlass too much before it strips off to fall into the well. This happens when the chain is hanging free the 2 times it has happened.

Is there any reason I can not make up a bracket or roller type of doodad and mount it next to the windlass so that the chain strips off correctly?

How long is the anchor chain?

[Butler]

Thanks all!! Last month I found a heavy bronze tongue in the misc. gear bag that came with the boat... could not figure out what it might be for but of course saved it. Wondered why the chain wasn't stripping off the the manual windlass... assumed it was a chain size problem. Still might be but...
Might have to buy that CF burgee now...

[Capitain Mike]

Originally Posted by Butler

Thanks all!! Last month I found a heavy bronze tongue in the misc. gear bag that came with the boat... could not figure out what it might be for but of course saved it. Wondered why the chain wasn't stripping off the the manual windlass... assumed it was a chain size problem. Still might be but...
Might have to buy that CF burgee now...

My question would be "Why was it removed in the from the windlass initially"???
There has to be a problem that is larger when the tongue is fitted!
Is it the correct (tongue) Rope/Chain stripper for the windlass?

[SkiprJohn]

Please, when you get a chance could you forward photos of the new fix?
kind regards,

[Butler]

Yup, all good questions Mike, thanks.
Hopefully will get around to looking at everything after the 4th. Of course not going to assume the tongue belongs this windlass and my first stop will be to check the chain compatability since I now have a length of 3/8ths handy to test against the 5/16 chain I brought to the boat. My last windlass (also manual) had no stripper and it was fine.

[GMac]

Interesting reading. The stripper should do bugger all 99% of the time. The other 1% is to flick the 'very occasional' sticky link out or more commonly rope if a R2C (auto rope to chain) winch. If you are relying on the stripper to peel the chain off the gypsy all the time the chances are very high you have a gypsy to chain mismatch or some other issue, possibly piling to high in your locker action, a common cause. The stripper on a all chain winch should be looked at as only a back-up rather than a must have. A all chain winch should run perfectly fine 99.9% of the time even with no stripper fitted.

With a R2C winch a stripper is important as it will often be used to flick the warp out especially if the rodes being retrieved under a big load. The rope will go right into the gypsy on occasions like than and often needs some encouragement to come out.

So if you have a munted and mangled stripper it usually indicates an issue. Mind you many strippers are pretty lightweight so a one-off freak Oppsie could munt it, but that isn't overly common.

So you shouldn't have to rely on your stripper nor should it be munted. If either of those are ongoing issues you have it does indicate you have other issues.

The stripper could be one that goes into the gypsy and doesn't have a band around the gypsy core or it maybe one that does, depends on who made it really. All strippers should go in pretty close to but not quite touching the gypsy core. Some that have the bands often do touch but that's OK and nothing to worry about. With the non-banded ones it is common to see them pushed to one side of the gypsy, just get a big screwdriver and bend it more into the middle. If it sits to far off to one side on a R2C winch it does leave a gap the rope could try to sneak past and as it thinks it can but actually can't the word cluster f**k would explain the likely outcome of it trying. Sometimes that can damage the rope so if you get that give the rope a quick check to make sure it hasn't been compromised.

But rest assured the manufacturers have realised that some of their earlier strippers were limp verging on hopeless so they are upgrading them as new models come out, a few have done some retro fitting also.

[Capitain Mike]

I Like what you said very informative.