Windlass Switch Labeling - A Poll

Roger
As HiDHo has reminded me, One of my foot switches failed. As it was the up, and I was far from a chandlery, I rewired so the down became the up until I could replace the switch. The chandlery only had one in stock. It was marked "DN", as was the up now in use. No problem.
By this time the FB switch was now running backwards: push was pull and pull was push. No problem after the first 1/2 second.

Tangential, but what is the advantage of "power out" over "freefall"? Matching paying out with reverse boat movement is good, but I`d say the sooner the anchor gets to the seafloor the better. Having only had freefall,I`ve no experiences to compare, so I`m interested in yours.

In shallow water and confined area, it is nice to be able to power down from the helm while maneuvering the boat.

Bruce
Hard to do freefall without going to the windlass and releasing the gypsy brake. Power down can be done from the FB.
ALso, knowing how much is out is easy with power down, esp if your windlass, like mine, does 1 ft/second. with freefall, depends on how you have marked the chain, and on watching for the marks.

BruceK said:

Tangential, but what is the advantage of "power out" over "freefall"?

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Good question. The original windlass to our boat was power-in only. We never let the anchor literally free-fall to the bottom because we'd observed problems with this on other boats, notably the potential for the rapidly deploying chain to jerk and bounce itself out of the wildcat to say nothing of the potential for an overrun when the anchor landed on the bottom or a violent shock if the chain in the locker became tangled or knotted and suddenly ceased to feed to the windlass. So we always controlled the "free" drop of the anchor with the handbrake on the windlass.

The advantage of power-out is that you can achieve this same degree of control without having to manually manipulate the brakewheel. This would be particularly advantageous if one operates a windlass remotely form a helm station. We don't operate our Lofrans Tigres remotely because there is useful information during setting that we can get only by observing and sometimes feeling by hand the behavior of the rode as we're backing away from the anchor. We can't see or feel the rode in the water from either of the helm stations.

But that's just our preference. A lot of boaters, particularly single-handers, like to deploy the anchor from a helm station so they can operate the boat at the same time. A power-out deploy gives them the opportunity of having better control over the process.

Where did you get those labels? I don't have any on my switches, but they look really nice.

Interesting. Without power out or helm control or a counter, someone has to "man" the release at the bow,which I think preferable anyway. We have the chain marked so it goes out no faster than can be counted (no slower either), we`ve not had a chain issue lowering, though we have while retrieving, due to a powerful recent replacement motor. Having repowered the Muir windlass I`ll be keeping it, but I appreciate the explanations. We rarely anchor in anything under 25ft deep, often it`s more. With all chain I miss the signal the anchor has hit bottom, line coiling on the surface.

Anchor free fall?

A bit like that, without smoke not even Lucas could produce, rate of fall variations, frantic lever applications, and (usually) recriminations.
Moral: the bitter end of the rode should always be secured to the boat.

BruceK said:

Interesting. Without power out or helm control or a counter, someone has to "man" the release at the bow,which I think preferable anyway.

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Our Lofrans Tigres has power-deploy and retrieve but we still operate the windlass at the windlass. The two foot switches are mounted beside the big teak pedestal the windlass sits on. We use wire ties to mark the chain every ten feet. No remote controls or chain counter.

Here's another vote for labels that indicate the direction of chain travel. Starboard pedal = chain (and anchor) coming aboard.

Interesting discussion of which I had not given much thought. Up or Down inquiry not withstanding, the fact how the anchor is controlled in the down position is novel to me.
On all the larger boats that I have been associated with, tugs, sainers, and larger OP boats, the anchor down if not just free fall, a banded brake drum was employed.
Being a small craft, dropping the anchor has never resulted in the fears that Marin has discribed. that it is an anticipation and planned for is smart using the methods discribed.
Learn something everyday!

Al-Ketchikan

HiDHo said:

I noted your pulpit is solid, mine has an open area filled with a teak grate aft of the rollers, another example of "when you've seen one Manatee"

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We had it rebuilt that way as it was easier to have it filled in solid than to shorten the grating to provide a place for the windlass and anchor roller foundations. It also doesn't look as odd as is would with the roller half on and half off the teak. Besides, less teak to maintain.

BTW chain arrives and gets loaded this morning and the job will be complete.

Dougcole said:

Where did you get those labels? I don't have any on my switches, but they look really nice.

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Photoshop. The photo wouldn't show the ones molded into the black rubber. BTW the rubber covers can easily be turned in any direction by unscrewing the safety covers. I could point them port and starboard to really confuse the issue

Wow Roger great job on the teak grate removal. Question, why didn't you also remove the built in rollers ? I had thought about doing that to be able to use the new style anchors with bent self righting shanks when refitting my pulpit/windlass project.

BobH said:

This whole discussion is a joke, right?

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Nope, it is a sign that winter has set in and any boating subject is better than none.

So here is mine on this subject - on a Searay with a Goode windlass I had an up/down switch on the dash that was not tight, If rotated no more than about 10 degrees the anchor direction reversed itself to the placard arrows. My wife was frequently heard to holler, " Are you up or down" as I sat on the bow insuring drop was indeed that. This was well received in a few anchorages with a guffaw or two from others nearby.

HiDHo said:

Question, why didn't you also remove the built in rollers ?

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The whole project cost about as much as the sailboat I traveled over 20,000 miles in and lived aboard for three years so I didn't want to do anything extra. I also kind of liked the rollers and plan to use them for the double anchor bridle. My second anchor will be a Fortress on a chain and rope rode. That hangs on the railing and its chain goes through the port pulpit roller. I hope it will coexist with the anchor bridle on that side. The rollers are quite wide so I don't expect any problem. (I tried housing the Fortress in the roller, no dice.)