Why do we have electric anchor winches when they clearly do not work. Anchor winches

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by Fuss

. Hydraulics just stop when overloaded and I like that concept.

And electrics have their clutch slip, if set correctly
Or have the breaker trip.

[double u]

having had 2 different manual windlasses on 2 of our rtws, one an extremely powerful, sturdy 2 speed model with band-footbrake, I can assure you: there is no ideal solution once your gear & boat is to big to do without a windlass. The electric Quick on our last boat was the best compromise

[tarian]

Follow the manufacturers guidelines, , bet it don't say use to pull boat.
Get walkie talkies to tall to helms man with earphones
Check weather from many sources
Stay put you have anchored

[Group9]

The secret to keeping an electric windless working is:

A. make sure it’s protected from corrosion,
B. use them.

Ours have been relatively trouble free, compared to other boat systems ( the AC for instance).

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by captmikem

A hydraulic windlass (or any hydraulic motor) does not 'burn out', the pressure relief valve opens and bypasses the windlass when stalled. You will not damage it. When the load lessons the valve closes and the windlass is running again. I have had numerous hydraulic windlasses on many boats and had no problems with them, (had many electric winches on small boats and had little trouble trouble with them either).

Thanks for clearing this up. I have played with autopilot hydraulics and these did not have the relief valve so the motor would stall consuming a lot of power relying on the autopilot electronics to detect this. It must depend on the hydraulic setup.


In any case, a fully electric windlass could easily have a temperature protection board to get the same behavior and make it basically impossible to see smoke coming from

As far as using twice as much power to do the same thing, that does not enter into it.

For my consideration of actual energy efficiency consumption does "enter into it" the energy consumption of a hydraulic is a lot higher because of hydraulic losses.



I have never used any kind of engine and cruised all over the world, so the energy is coming from solar not a machine causing needless pollution.



It seems like an anchor windlass would be improved if it could have multiple speeds. An ideal system would be like an electric bicycle so you can also pedal it and have all the different speeds. This way you could use it on faster speeds for kedeging to move the boat, actually I can get going 3.5 knots this way, and once the anchor is up, I can coast for a while on the momentum. This is much faster than by sculling although the power is about the same and I am not even pedaling. With an rc-boat to set this anchor for you, it becomes a viable and highly efficient way to move the boat in narrow spaces especially with strong currents. Although I have also considered a very large cross-bow that could shoot an anchor out for this purpose, or perhaps simply cast a very small anchor which can then pulley the kedge sized one out (with a float) and drop it when it reaches a knot with a mechanism for this.



switch to a lower gear and a final very low gear to get the anchor to unstick. So why not multiple speeds?

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by tarian

Follow the manufacturers guidelines, , bet it don't say use to pull boat.

No, but it does say it can pull a couple of tonne.
As the anchor and chain is only 200KG what do you think the rest of that brute strength is there for?

Get walkie talkies to tall to helms man with earphones

Or not.
4 years anchoring ours full time and hand signals are all we ever use and now, we instinctively know and rarely need them.

[patprice]

"just start the process, if the hydraulics are overloaded the winch stops"
OK nothing gets broken but.....the anchor does not get raised.
Hydraulic systems are very common on larger installations but I do not know if they "fail" if overloaded.

[MultiCountryDon]

Hmmmm
My electric worked great yesterday, and the day b4, and--

Is there a reliability issue that I should fear?

[Palarran]

Originally Posted by Dsanduril

I guess it must be us catamaran sailors For ourselves, we probably sail off the anchor ~25% of the time? When there's a bit of wind and some extra maneuvering room. Don't start the engine(s), don't have the alternator running. Raise the main (using the capstan on our windlass as the "electric winch" for the last bit) then haul the boat forward with the windlass and raise the anchor. Fall off and start sailing.

Can't imagine having gear that can't handle that. Except for the first 10 seconds or so while the boat gets a little way on the load on the windlass (and the batteries) is pretty light.

I've always wondered what is wrong with certain boat's electrical systems that require them to run the motor to operate the windlass.

[MultiCountryDon]

Both my Beneteaus and the Jeanneau came wired that way. Stupid. Dangerous. If your engine dies you can't drop the anchor to keep yourself out of trouble. Had mine modified.
Sales guy said it was to keep newbie charter folks from killing the battery.

[billgewater]

Yes. Use the winch to wind in slack chain or finally to lift the anchor up from the bottom. Use the motor or sail to bring the boat up to the anchor. When you are over the anchor, use the riding boat to pull the anchor out of the bottom. The winch is not a beast and needs care when being used. If you overreach its capability and it "dies" during use then you may really be in a hard place.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by Palarran

I've always wondered what is wrong with certain boat's electrical systems that require them to run the motor to operate the windlass.

Well consider the typical monohull electrical system, insufficient batteries to provide 13-14 volts first thing in the morning when we're trying to raise the anchor (low voltage is hard on a DC electric motor) so we run the motor when using the windlass. We can do it without the motor, and in that case switch to both batteries, but we'd prefer to just run the engine.

We also run the motor when using the watermaker, same reason.

The electric motors on both the windlass and the watermaker pump are in great shape after 24 years. (The engine too, actually).

[CapnBazza]

Originally Posted by Fuss

It’s a safety issue for critical equipment.
So, let’s install an electric anchor winch. We do the research, we choose an oversize one that is far too powerful for our boat and we install.
We read a few threads on here about technique and we learn that we should never pull our boat up to the anchor using the windlass or it might burn out or whatever....(really who would design such a delicate system for such critical equipment, especially when you anchor is too heavy to bring in by hand).
Apart from this minor inconvenience, It works great.
Oh look, there’s a big wind now and it wakes us up, I think we have to move, get up get up, it’s raining too.
S**** those waves are big too, what did you say, I can’t see your hand signals, I said, I can’t see your hand signals, port, no starboard, stop , stop.
There’s a bad smell like burning coming from the windlass, is it ok.

So why do we put up with this weakness. When clearly what we need is a self contained hydraulic one for a reasonable price.
Advantages are huge... just start the process, if the hydraulics are overloaded the winch stops, nothing burns out. You can pull up your anchor in all conditions, not just sunny days.
Of course we don’t want a huge pump and motor and oil tank making it far too expensive but if something was available that brought up my anchor at a 3rd of the speed of my 2kw, 1000kg winch, I would consider it.

Any ideas, anyone made a hydraulic one?

Mine works and works well. Maybe you too should get a good one.

[Palarran]

Originally Posted by wingssail

Well consider the typical monohull electrical system, insufficient batteries to provide 13-14 volts first thing in the morning when we're trying to raise the anchor (low voltage is hard on a DC electric motor) so we run the motor when using the windlass. We can do it without the motor, and in that case switch to both batteries, but we'd prefer to just run the engine.

We also run the motor when using the watermaker, same reason.

The electric motors on both the windlass and the watermaker pump are in great shape after 24 years. (The engine too, actually).

It really shouldn't be boat type dependent IMO. Do you only have two batteries or are you saying start and house bank? Don't misunderstand me, I've got my motors running essentially 100% of the times we raise anchor, we just don't have to.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by Palarran

It really shouldn't be boat type dependent IMO. Do you only have two batteries or are you saying start and house bank? Don't misunderstand me, I've got my motors running essentially 100% of the times we raise anchor, we just don't have to.

House and Start Bank, rather small (lack of room) 450 ah and 105ah.

We don't have to run the engines, but the windlass works better (and lasts longer) with plenty of voltage.