Information on my manual windlass

[Geek_Guy]

I'm confused but seem to live that way.

The PO had a manual windlass that I took off, cleaned, oiled, and reinstalled. It is now working, but I don't understand how he used it as he had it. It is installed aft of the anchor locker so the chain can't fall down from the gypsy into it. There is a metal thing installed under the gypsy to keep the chain from going forward into the locker.

I've attached pictures so hopefully someone can tell me how I can make this setup work. Or alternative ideas.

Thanks

[Sailmonkey]

Your anchor doesn't appear to have any chain attached. I'd guess that the PO used the windlass only to break out the anchor. Pull by hand until up and down, wrap around the gypsy head, crank the anchor out of the ground, unwind the rhode from the gypsy and continue to pull by hand.

[Geek_Guy]

So do you mean that he only laid the chain over the top of the gypsy. Not over and under? That metal spike thing stops the chain from returning forward under the gypsy.


Could I remove the metal spike thing and allow the chain to return forward to the locker, or is that asking for trouble? That was my assumption as to how it was supposed to work.


Some gufus placed the rode directly to the anchor rather than the chain.......

[Pendragon35]

I have the same windlass except mine lets the chain fall directly to the anchor locker. I think with that set up, you'd have to pull in the chain and rode and then manually put them in the locker. No idea if you can remove whatever prevents it from going there, I can't see that clearly.

[Sailmonkey]

The gypsy is the smooth drum that feeds is a basic winch drum.

The wildcat has the chain stripper (spike) there to peel the chain off and direct it down the hawse hole (can't be done the way you're setup.

You can try removing the chain stripper and letting the chain snake into the locker, but I don't think it will work well, and it will mess up the deck!

[Tessellate]

I have the same windlass. He almost certainly used only the rope drum to haul in a *rope* rode. The rope drum looks aligned with the bow roller, so that makes sense.

The chain gypsy is unusable as installed. Potentially you could sort of use it by running the chain only across the top edge of the gypsy, manually tailing the chain onto the deck, and being very careful to hold the chain down so it doesn't slip off the gypsy. But that would be fairly dangerous.

The metal spike thing is the chain stripper. It's I'd say 90% necessary for using the chain gypsy because otherwise the chain links will tend to get stuck in the gypsy (want to wrap around 360 degrees back into the incoming chain). I used the windlass for a while without a chain stripper but it was annoying (had to occasionally manually strip the chain into the hawse hole).

It's surprising that the prior owner installed the chain stripper, since it's useless in this configuration. Maybe he was very confused. I also see two square head screws sticking out stbd aft on your deck and two unfilled screw holes. Wonder what those were for.

If your anchor rode has some chain, he probably just used the rope drum to haul anchor until he got to the chain and then did that by hand.

If you want to use the chain gypsy the windlass needs to be installed on a platform in the anchor locker with a hole for the hawse hole (that's the white slot/ring below the gypsy). That's how mine is installed. Your anchor locker needs to have enough depth to fit the windlass + chain below it. Alternatively it might be possible to route a hawse pipe from deck, ensuring it has as much vertical free fall as possible.

Btw nice job on the paint job. Mine doesn't look that good.

[roverhi]

The problem with this setup is there no way to get the rode to self stow. The locker just isn't deep enough. They probably let the rode pile up on deck and then handed it into the locker.

These anchor lockers are one of my pet peeves as they are really useless for anchor work on a serious cruiser. Fine for the racer/cruiser who wants an out of the way stowage for a small Danforth. You need an anchor roller to stow a good sized 'Mantus' and a deep rode locker for the rode to self store if you anchor regularly.

[Geek_Guy]

Tessellate

Though it's always tempting to run down the PO. The truth is that from what I've seen he's a much better guy around the boat than me. He used lots of rode then about 70 feet of 3/8 chain. So using the rode side would make sense.

But to your question on the other screws and holes. There was a mostly rotted piece of teak under those screws and nothing in the holes on each side of the hole for the chain. Why would the PO have bothered with those things on the chain side if he never meant to use it? Could he have put the piece of teak to cushion the fall of the chain? Wouldn't the chain have just piled up in that area. With a pause every couple feet to pull the pile away? Also the stripper would still help by pulling off the chain. No doubt it wouldn't be the ideal set up. But given the small anchor locker, it may have been a compromise.

Thanks on the paint. It was the second coating. The first was OK, but I scuffed some off on the no skid.

[01kiwijohn]

that "thing" is a chain stripper. If you wrap the chain, then lead it forward to the locker, you'll need to remove it, then add a roller, on the rear edge of the locker, to enable the chain to go around the windlass, then down into the locker.