BLUEMOMENT

One unwelcome thing I brought back from my recent Scottish cruise was a bad back brought on by manually deploying my 14Kg Kobra anchor, not just the hauling in but the lifting out of the locker and onto the bow roller. So I've decided two things: I'm going to carry the anchor permanently on the bow roller in future and I'm going to get an electric windlass. I want to keep my existing rode which is 8 mm chain spliced to 14 mm 8 plait and I'm restricted by the Hunter's anchor locker which is only 10 inches deep at the aft end but gets deeper and obviously narrower towards the bow. Any suggestions for a windlass that would suit? if such exists.

Unless you have a lot of space on your bow roller(s) you are going to have to forgo the joys of swinging moorings. The answer is exercise to promote core stability and muscle strength - otherwise you need 2 anchor winches so you have back-up (yea, I meant that one!) for the inevitable failure. My winch gave up last year and so far this year my back is holding up (touch wood) despite a history of spasm attacks, thanks, I believe, to a lovely NHS physiotherapist who managed to awake dormant muscles and teach me better habits.

Not before time, some would say.

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Ken
Rival 38 Cherry Ripe
Yes, isn't it odd that a boat named like that should be green?

Nobody got anything to tell me about windlasses then?

I had a look on the Hunter site and the last picture in the Hunter 31 gallery shows an anchor locker complete with windlass. The amount of rode shown might be good for what the English call the "East Coast". Why not give Hunter a ring?

Carrying an anchor permanently on the bow is regarded as anti-social in some circles.

I've spoken to Hunters and to another Channel 31 owner who has a vertical spindle windlass mounted just behind the anchor locker like in the illustration. Apparently, when recovering the anchor, one has to keep stopping and pushing the rode forward down the locker to stop it piling up under the windlass and jamming it. This seems less than ideal. I believe that horizontal windlasses are more tolerant of shallow anchor lockers because the rode doesn't have to turn through 90 degrees after it leaves the gypsy, which relies on the pull from the weight of hanging rode, which is obviously less with a shallow locker.


Why is this? Is it because in marinas the anchor can protrude dangerously over the walkway? surely all one has to do is pull the boat back on the springs? Are there other reasons? What I've seen of bows-on contretemps has usually been a matter of locking horns with pulpits rather than anchor gouging.

(This is also, at least in part, to assist the OP who probably thinks we aren't being very helpful.)

While I understand the point, there is, I feel, a compromise possible. When my windlass (a SL horizontal axis spur geared "Horizon" model - but exactly which I can't remember - suffered its first "inevitable failure", part of the restorative action involved buying an emergency retrieval handle which screws on to the barrel and is ratcheted so that with the electrics dead the rode can still be cranked in manually. Slower, but certainly less strain on the back than heave ho. While SL are, alas, no more, I obtained the handle from the man in Paisley who has access to their spares. (Search for previous references.) It wasn't cheap, but IMHO well worthwhile. In buying another windlass I would make sure that some such arrangement was possible. I believe that vertical axis machines have a standard winch handle socket for this, but have no personal experience.

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Oh, what luxury - a marina berth big enough to position your boat where you wish - certainly can't be Port Edgar. It is quite common for race S.I.s to prohibit an anchor on the roller and I can assure you that if t-boned by an anchor-on-roller boat the damage can be considerable.
Are you really convinced that £1k+ ( by the time you've sourced the wiring, windlass, etc.) is the best way of resolving your problem?

Well not absolutely convinced and very much open to alternatives. How I actually did my back in was, having lifted the anchor out of the locker, I had to pass it forward between the pulpit tubes, a long way forward till the flukes were forward of the bow roller, before I could lower the shank onto the roller. This meant that the weight was cantilevered out by the length of my arms and upper back, my lower body being constrained aft by the pulpit rail and the narrowing of the foredeck. This is just the way they tell you how not to lift on courses. Since last season I've upgraded from a 22 to a 30 pound anchor which won't have helped, also I'm a year older and the problem can only worsen with the years. Hence my interest in carrying the anchor on the bow roller.