New things for the boat!!!

[ksanders]

Well, I can tell spring is close, because I'm spending the farm on new things for the boat.

First is a new Lofrans Tigress windlass and all chain rode for the boat. The chain is 5/16" HT and I bought a full drum of 550'. I have no clue how I'm going to get that chain down the ramp to the boat at 600 lbs but I'm thinking a couple of young men and a couple of Ben Franklin's will do the trick.

I went with the Lofrans because it seems to be a well loved windlass with a long track record of success. I went with a all chain rode because it was allot easier to buy a windlass that would handle all chain then one that would accept a combination rode. This will be my first experience with all chain rode and I can say that 15 years of using a combination rode has never let me down. I hope the same for the all chain rode.

The second is that I am replacing my Raritan Purasan type 3 MSD. The problem is the Purasan uses a chlorine tablet that is in a small vessel. When a treatment cycle occurs a valve opens for a moment allowing water to flow into the vessel. Then the valve closes and the chlorinated water drains into the Purasan treatment system killing bacteria.

While the system is great in theory, in practicality little granules of chlorine end up clogging up the vessel and the chlorinated water doesn't drain correctly all the time. There is also no way of knowing when the chlorine tablet needs replacing.

The unit I purchased is the new Purasan EX. The improvement is that the new unit uses air pressure to positively evacuate the chlorine vessel and there are sensors built in to sense the chlorine, and sense if the chamber filled and drained properly. This gives diagnostic feedback necessary to know the unit is working properly.

So, I know spring is coming because my checkbook tells me!

 

[Rebel112r]

Ksanders- I switched to all chain last spring, got a drum of 10mm. Was scheduled for haul-out, so loaded chain from back of pick up directly to windlass and locker. Piece of cake. Got a heck,of a deal from Fisheries in Seattle, total cost less than $1k. Good luck.

 

[psneeld]

I just dumped mine in a small boat at the bulkhead and motored out to under the bow pulpit and wound'er up.

 

[ksanders]

Thanks guys!

I never thought to do it at haulout. I need to do my annual haulout this spring so that would work great!

Funny, fisheries quoted me $2100 for the chain. The outfit in Alaska was about the same.

Defender was $1450 plus shipping, which came out to be $350 including the windlass which saved me a bunch.

 

[FlyWright]

Since my bass horn failed a few weeks ago in the fog, my boat has been sounding more like the roadrunner (beep-beep) than a seaworthy vessel. It's time to correct that problem once and for all!

My spring improvement is the purchase of the Kahlenberg K-380 horns off of TwistedTree's 6 month old Nordhavn 60. He is upgrading to a D-2 and sold me his 'old' horns, which my wife disparagingly referred to as "wind chimes"! I haven't heard her repeat that description since I sounded them in a long blast without warning last night in our dining room.

That Sharpie she threw at me missed me by "that much!"

 

[Pack Mule]

Tiki toss . Not much of a boat thing . But still fun . When you have an old work boat you can just screw anything to it and not worry about it .Whoops that pic shows I haven't installed my new hawse holes yet .

 

[FlyWright]

I had to look it up.

What kind of rode did you use? You used a good splice, no doubt? Hey, shouldn't there be a swivel on that thing?

 

[Pack Mule]

It's one of those stoner games . It's hard to do on a rolling boat . The further back the swing point is on the ceiling the harder it is to ring the hook . Hey man it gets boring here with boat winterized . But I did get one of these for Christmas from my daughters .

 

[SomeSailor]

I have no clue how I'm going to get that chain down the ramp to the boat at 600 lbs but I'm thinking a couple of young men and a couple of Ben Franklin's will do the trick.

I watched a couple of guys walk an anchor chain down the dock one day that must have been 500' worth. They ended up using 3 dock carts.

Too heavy for a single dock cart, they just got three guys moving together. Pretty clever when I got to thinking about it. Each probably had 200# in the cart.

 

[healhustler]

I wheeled a drum of 300' of 5/16 BBB down to the dock on my cheapie IKEA hand truck a while ago. It was highly stressed but still works.

 

[Pgitug]

Are you really going to carry the full 550' of chain?

 

[ksanders]

Are you really going to carry the full 550' of chain?

Of course.

I need to be able to "fish anchor" in 325' deep and it'll take all the chain to grab the bottom, abet temporarially.

I also anchor in over 100' depths all the time. With a 5:1 scope thats 500' of chain out.

 

[markpierce]

Since my bass horn failed a few weeks ago in the fog, my boat has been sounding more like the roadrunner (beep-beep) than a seaworthy vessel. It's time to correct that problem once and for all! ...

Congratulations on your new horns, Al. I treasure my Kahlenbergs.

 

[GoldenDawn]

Chain Party

I fretted over the installation of new chain for weeks. In short, we had a "chain party". Two of us dragged 400' down the dock (~15 minutes), flaked it on the float and then a crew of 3 fed the new chain in - one in the chain locker stowing, one on deck with the winch controller and one on the float feeding. All up, it took less than an hour. (photos attached, maybe . . .)

 

[RT Firefly]

 

[Wxx3]

I had them put the barrel of chain in the parking lot and then i got by bow as close to a straight line to the ramp as i could.

So I only had to walk the front of the chain to the bow pulpit and windlass.

Then it was just easy using the windlass to pull the chain on board and into the chain locker.

 

[FF]

If one anchors to fish temporarily there is no help with 500 lbs of chain hanging off the bow.

Only what is working on the bottom might need a few ft of chain to prevent chafe from nearby rocks.

Seems like it would be lots easier to pull a 60 or 90 lb anchor with 10 ft of chain than hundreds of feet & pounds of chain to chase fish..

Many of waters in New England are shallow 30-100ft , and the commercials there drop quire small (crappy) anchors as a slight dragging is no hassle , they just want to stay ,sorta where they are.

 

[ksanders]

I had them put the barrel of chain in the parking lot and then i got by bow as close to a straight line to the ramp as i could.

So I only had to walk the front of the chain to the bow pulpit and windlass.

Then it was just easy using the windlass to pull the chain on board and into the chain locker.

If I cant find a couple of guys willing to haul the chain to the boat thats what I'll end up doing, although I do like the "chain party" idea posted by golden dawn.

Pickup truck on boat ramp.

Boat on boat ramp

pull chain from pickup to boat. Thats a straight line pull and I could even use a piece of line around the capstan as a way to get the chain to the boat.

 

[GoldenDawn]

I forgot to mention that one advantage to dragging down the dock is that welaid out markers on the dock, and were able to mark the chain.