Retrieving anchor

Do you use the windlass to retrieve anchor the last few feet on to pulpit or should you do it by hand. Seems dangerous trying to line up anchor by hand and stepping on windlass switch at the same time.

On our GB the anchor lines up easily on its own. If it didn't I wouldn't go anywhere near the chain with any body part while using the windlass.

Mine come up completely by windlass. After it's broken free from the bottom, it comes up steadily until my 'warning track' rode markings in the last 10 feet. Then I raise it incrementally, pausing to allow it to self-right if needed, before the final retrieval action.

I wouldn't want my fingers near the chain during any windlass operation. Unless I'm spraying mine down as it comes up, I'm normally 20+ feet away at the helm controls. If I'm washing the ground tackle during retrieval, it gets sprayed from a few feet away with one hand and the remote is in my other hand with no part of me touching the pulpit or windlass.

I used to twist the chain by hand...but now with a swivel I can turn the anchor with the windlass manual lever or boat hook as it comes up.

Put a swivel between the chain and the anchor and you won't have to twist your chain as it comes up.

I have to do that last few feet manually. Partly because the anchor may or may not present correct-side-up. Partly because there's only very little clearance, and the angle is such that the windlass would bang the "nose" of the anchor against the bottom of the pulpit fairly violently.


-Chris

I do not have a swivel. If you stop when the anchor clears the water and jog it up a foot and wait it will untwist itself. Never had to manhandle the chain yet. Occasionally the anchor comes up 180 out, stop when the shank begins to pivot up and it will roll the correct direction due to the twist in the chain. Be patient.

My wife is the anchor wench and she is under strict instruction from the captain NEVER to go near the chain. Foot on deck button until it is all the way in, close the cap, put the pawl on and tie the chain down. So far since we have had this boat I have not tended to the lowering or raising of the anchor at all.

All I do is the snubber.

I see that all you lucky guys/gals have windlasses with gypsys! Ours is still the kind you turn on and tail the yucky rode. (But, not for long!)

We had (have, the boat's not sold, yet) a Maxwell flush-with-the-deck winch, which I installed. It has a dual chain/rope gypsy. I would be fairly gentle, nudging the switch, to give the CQR time to approach the roller. It would sometimes have to turn itself over as it came up over the roller. Trouble-free.

On my little boat I never go forward to retrieve or launch the anchor. I just sit on the bridge and push a button. The anchor always turns the right way. It's a Delta. I'm hoping the Vulcan anchor I'm switching to will do the same.

HopCar said:

On my little boat I never go forward to retrieve or launch the anchor. I just sit on the bridge and push a button. The anchor always turns the right way. It's a Delta. I'm hoping the Vulcan anchor I'm switching to will do the same.

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My wife does all the anchoring and retrieval from the bow. We have controls at the bow, lower helm and fly bridge. Often the anchor and chain come up loaded with mud and needs to be washed. I've seen some of the big boys with wash down nozzles affixed to the bow but we are not one of the big boys so we use a wash down pump and hose. Oh well, can't have everything.

A question. With a chain gypsy I would have thought that the anchor HAD to return the right way up since the chain links deploy and return the same way on the ratchets?

Or are we discussing anchors with swivels that somehow negates that??

Menzies, that chain gypsy would sometimes allow the chain to 'hop', making expensive noises, but most of the time the anchor would rotate to relieve the twist. No swivel. No problem, either.

The chain doesn't really ploy and deploy with the same orientation, at least with a rope rode.

DHeckrotte said:

Menzies, that chain gypsy would sometimes allow the chain to 'hop', making expensive noises, but most of the time the anchor would rotate to relieve the twist. No swivel. No problem, either.

The chain doesn't really ploy and deploy with the same orientation, at least with a rope rode.

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I understand with a rope rode, but with chain on a chain gypsy, how can the anchor change its position?

menzies said:

A question. With a chain gypsy I would have thought that the anchor HAD to return the right way up since the chain links deploy and return the same way on the ratchets?

Or are we discussing anchors with swivels that somehow negates that??

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Good point Menzies. I was one of those who thought a swivel was a good idea, mainly because the PO had one on it. However, persuaded by those on here who maintained swivels were unnecessary, and a possible weak link, I dispensed with it some time ago, and since making sure the chain links from the gypsy to the anchor are aligned in such a way that the anchor will be the right way round, it has indeed proven to be the case. I think I have only had to go out and encourage it around once since that change. Like Hopcar, I do all upping and downing from the helm.

"From the helm" ......

You guys need to get out more.

Thanks everyone I do have a swivel on the end. My wife was retrieving the anchor today and I could see the anchor was cockeyed the last few feet and told her to stop we need to line it up. Well she lined it up hose in right hand right foot on windlass switch left knee on pulpit and left hand twisting chain while activating foot switch. It looked like a twister move I attempted to tell her that was not safe. She told me to calm down. Without going into more detail I think we will be using a boat hook in the future to line it up. Happy wife happy life

Nomad Willy said:

"From the helm" ......

You guys need to get out more.

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I think somebody's jealous!

Nomad Willy said:

"From the helm" ......

You guys need to get out more.

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No Eric, it's not because of laziness, or a fear of going outside. Two other reasons.

1. It so happens I don't have a foot operated anchor winch switch at the bow...and...

2. I doubt I'd use it much even if I did, and I've never regretted not having one there, for the reason others have eluded to. Namely safety. There is no way I can ever get my fingers jammed or mangled if attending to a stuck or rotated anchor if I cannot hit the switch without going back to the helm. See..?

PS. As mentioned above, since removing the swivel, it comes up right way round 90+% of the time anyway, so trips to and fro are down largely to attaching the snubber once we are good, or detaching it when we are good to go.

Busterbrown said:

Thanks everyone I do have a swivel on the end. My wife was retrieving the anchor today and I could see the anchor was cockeyed the last few feet and told her to stop we need to line it up. Well she lined it up hose in right hand right foot on windlass switch left knee on pulpit and left hand twisting chain while activating foot switch. It looked like a twister move I attempted to tell her that was not safe. She told me to calm down. Without going into more detail I think we will be using a boat hook in the future to line it up. Happy wife happy life

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Get rid of the swivel before she gets rid of a couple of fingers.

HopCar said:

On my little boat I never go forward to retrieve or launch the anchor. I just sit on the bridge and push a button. The anchor always turns the right way. It's a Delta. I'm hoping the Vulcan anchor I'm switching to will do the same.

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Parks

I'm always up front hosing the salt water, mud, kelp and critters off the chain as it comes in. A few nudges with the boat hook to rotate the anchor are routine. Each boat, pulpit, roller anchor size etc are different.

Then once anchor is up it is necessary to secure it in place so it doesn't do the deep six dance as happened to Marty's friend.

How do the folks who retrieve from the helm wash down the chain and anchor as it comes up? If I retrieved form the helm I would be placing a ton of crap in the chain locker. Some 'splainin please.

"How do the folks who retrieve from the helm wash down the chain and anchor as it comes up?"

The chain is just long enough to wrap on the gypsy with out going below.

The deck stopper catches the chain and anchor with no load on the windlass.

Since no mud is carried below , no washing is required.

Plan B is a hired deck ape.

1) Many folks will tell you that a swivel is the weakest link in a ground tackle system. I tend to agree and that's why I don't have one.


2) Putting hands or fingers anywhere near an operating windlass is likely to result in damage or loss of those hands and fingers. Think of a windlass as a power tool without any safety features.


To answer the original question, I have a windlass to deploy and retrieve my anchor. I've only done it by hand when the windlass failed. I replaced the windlass ASAP.

Hmmm...

I use the windlass all the way up. Our anchor weighs 80 pounds, so there is no lifting it by hand.

If it's backwards when it comes up (sometimes the case) I use a boat hook to spin it around.

And yes, we have an all chain rode(plenty long enough), and a proper anchor (a SARCA Excel), and a proper windlass. No we do not have a swivel.

In my system, the swivel is the strongest link and using multiple shackles and the type of swivel, it cannot be strained in any way but tension, it's strongest engineering loading requirement.

As in any system...it depends on the chosen components to determine the weakest link.

Given flexibility...it is easy to figure out.

Plus anyone that thinks a windlass is an automatic finger grabber....given how slow most are...needs more time with chainsaws.....

Perhaps the best way to attach a swivel is to put a short length of chain between it and the anchor. Just 3-4 links will do.

Eliminating the possibility of the swivel binding on the anchor shank.

Capt.Bill11 said:

Perhaps the best way to attach a swivel is to put a short length of chain between it and the anchor. Just 3-4 links will do.

Eliminating the possibility of the swivel binding on the anchor shank.

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Mine works great with just one shackle between the anchor and the swivel. It also allows me to use the oversized swivel to overcome a weak link theory.

I have twisted it a 100 different ways...can't get it to foul and put cockeyed strain on the swivel.

But that is my anchor, shackle, swivel and chain combo...may not be the same for anyone else with even one different component.

hmason said:

How do the folks who retrieve from the helm wash down the chain and anchor as it comes up? If I retrieved form the helm I would be placing a ton of crap in the chain locker. Some 'splainin please.

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My windlass is visible from the helm during operation. If I see muddy water being flung on the SS plate on the pulpit, I'll stop the retrieve from the helm and go to the bow where the washdown hose is mounted in a recessed canister. Then I use the wireless remote to retrieve as I spray with the other hand. I have considered mounting a spray nozzle aimed at the rode as it comes up, but haven't had enough of an issue to pursue this idea in earnest.

Often, maybe 60% of the time, my rode and anchor comes up clean so I just let her run into the locker as is. Usually an overnight hookset will require some cleaning upon retrieval, but many of my anchorings are in fishing holes and may only last a couple of hours. The retrieval process shakes most of the water off the rode. It helps that much of my anchoring is in brackish or fresh water.

My anchor locker has no drain, no mud and no smell.

Capt.Bill11 said:

Perhaps the best way to attach a swivel is to put a short length of chain between it and the anchor. Just 3-4 links will do.

Eliminating the possibility of the swivel binding on the anchor shank.

Click to expand...

That's the way I set mine up too.