ksanders
Moderator Emeritus
I have an issue with my anchor windlass and or my rode set up.
I often anchor to fish in water around 300' deep. This isnt for long term or storm anchoring, just to stop and fish for an hour or two.
The issue is that my Muir Cougar windlass doesnt handle rope rodes well. It does chain just fine, but not rope nearly as well.
This leaves me considering a 600' all chain rode.
The problem with this is twofold. First is my anchor locker. 600' of chain is allot of chain. Moving it around the locker if it piles into a chain pyramid would not be that easy.
The second issue is that while the manufacturer says that my Muir Cougar windlass right out of the box brand new would easily break out and lift a 105 lb anchor and 300' of 5/16HT chain, he says that as a older windlass that might not be the case. He recommended a new motor to make sure it was up to snuff, good advice.
So, this leaves me thinking, why not replace the windlass with a unit that does chain and rope rodes?
So, looking into this I fell in love first with a open spool type windlass until I measured the boat and realized it would not fit on my anchor pulpit without serious modifications. Serious enough to eliminate it from the idea mix.
Then I started looking at windlasses and realized that large horizontal windlasses that handle mixed rope and chain rodes are not all that common.
I did find one that appears to do the job well, and contacted the manufactiurer to verify this. According to them it will do everything I want. The windlass is made by a company called Maxwell and it is the model HRC10-8
Here's a photo
and a link to the manufactirers web site Horizontal Rope and Chain Range
This model seems on the surface to be perfect. It will do what I want it to do, it will work with my existing 100 amp breaker and 2/0 DC cables just fine, etc...
So the question of the day...
Does anybody here on TF have any experience with this model? Any other ideas or suggestions?
Thanks!
I often anchor to fish in water around 300' deep. This isnt for long term or storm anchoring, just to stop and fish for an hour or two.
The issue is that my Muir Cougar windlass doesnt handle rope rodes well. It does chain just fine, but not rope nearly as well.
This leaves me considering a 600' all chain rode.
The problem with this is twofold. First is my anchor locker. 600' of chain is allot of chain. Moving it around the locker if it piles into a chain pyramid would not be that easy.
The second issue is that while the manufacturer says that my Muir Cougar windlass right out of the box brand new would easily break out and lift a 105 lb anchor and 300' of 5/16HT chain, he says that as a older windlass that might not be the case. He recommended a new motor to make sure it was up to snuff, good advice.
So, this leaves me thinking, why not replace the windlass with a unit that does chain and rope rodes?
So, looking into this I fell in love first with a open spool type windlass until I measured the boat and realized it would not fit on my anchor pulpit without serious modifications. Serious enough to eliminate it from the idea mix.
Then I started looking at windlasses and realized that large horizontal windlasses that handle mixed rope and chain rodes are not all that common.
I did find one that appears to do the job well, and contacted the manufactiurer to verify this. According to them it will do everything I want. The windlass is made by a company called Maxwell and it is the model HRC10-8
Here's a photo
and a link to the manufactirers web site Horizontal Rope and Chain Range
This model seems on the surface to be perfect. It will do what I want it to do, it will work with my existing 100 amp breaker and 2/0 DC cables just fine, etc...
So the question of the day...
Does anybody here on TF have any experience with this model? Any other ideas or suggestions?
Thanks!