Cost for Hydraulic Captive Reel Anchor Winch

My shipyard has given me a quote to upgrade to a hydraulic winch for my new construction boat. The base price includes a manual captive reel, 60 kg AC14 anchor, 50 ft of chain and 100 meters of nylon rode.

The hydraulic upgrade would be same ground tackle and winch basically, but a motor for the winch plus pump, tank, piping etc.

So I’m curious what others would estimate this upgrade to cost, considering this is Southeast Asia. I feel like like he’s juicing me on options.

PS - Thanks to NomadWilly for this photo:

I just went through all that - look at Kohlstrand in Seattle, the winch appropriate for my boat would have been about $9000 not including anchor and tackle - you can choose polished stainless, aluminum or galvanized steel, the cheapest. Their winches use a 4-position controller, power up, brake/stop, power down and free fall. They use a "free-spool" motor which is essential if you want the free-fall ("emergency brake") position to work. They do not have friction brakes (the hydraulics do that) unless you spec one but you need their 'dog' arrangement to lock the drum. You can see the dog (a ratchet ring) in Eric's photo but that one also has a drum brake which is usual in a winch where there is a dog-clutch to disconnect the motor to allow the drum to free-fall.

Check them out. If you phone them, ask for Kal, he is very knowledgeable and friendly and if he hears that I sent you I might get a future discount! 8^) I just purchased a free-spool motor from him.

Reel winches get weaker as the diameter of the drum increases from stored line or chain.

They seem to be desired by commercials that may anchor multiple times a day .

Is that your desire?

Yes, they do get weaker, the drum moment getting longer as it fills...but they are spec'd to be hydraulically powerful enough to pull the tackle even when the drum is full. You can do the math. You can get direct drive or a reduction gear drive if you need it. Their only possible drawback is that you sometimes have to wrangle the chain a bit so it goes back on the drum kinda/sorta evenly. Mine is the bees knees.

More than just using them a lot, commercial boats don't want to mess with a chain locker, everything including a muddy chain stays on deck, there are no deck penetrations and there is no washdown required. Plus hydraulics are usually readily available on a commercial boat.

A friend reminded me of.....

"As the diameter increases it is lifting less and less weight"

Xsbank said:

Mine is the bees knees.

More than just using them a lot, commercial boats don't want to mess with a chain locker, everything including a muddy chain stays on deck, there are no deck penetrations and there is no washdown required.

Click to expand...

So to begin with... what in the world is "the bees knees?" Isn't that where they store pollen? So Xzbank you're saying that your winch is soft and fluffy and irritates your allergies???

Certainly the idea of doing away with a nasty chain locker is attractive, but it likely is not practical to spool 110 meters of chain on the drum so anchoring would need to be with rope rode. It's doable but on a world cruiser it might also be too risky.

"The phrase "the bee's knees", meaning "the height of excellence", became popular in the U.S. in the 1920s, along with "the cat's whiskers" (possibly from the use of these in radio crystal sets), "the cat's pajamas" (pajamas were still new enough to be daring), and similar phrases that didn't endure..."

Well Mako, to each his own. I am happy with mine. Lots of boats use cable but I have 300' of 3/4" double braid and 100' of 5/16th high test chain and a 30 kg. anchor. Absolutely no worries (notice how I didn't say what type of anchor I have?).

5/16" high test chain w/l 3900#
3/8" high test chain w/l 5400#
3/4” double braid nylon rope 14,500#

See what I did there? Chain is not always the answer.

For the record, my windlass doesn't even slow down when I pull it in and use it to yank the anchor out of the mud but the bow dips a bit. It has plenty of pulling power even with a full drum.

Good luck with your quest.

Glad that you’re happy with your setup. What is the length and displacement of your vessel?

52' 24 tons.

I had a Kohstrand hydraulic windlass on Refugio, but I went with 100’ of chain then 250’ of wire rope - takes up much less space than nylon.

I have a Kinematic hydraulic winch. I love it. 20' of 3/8 chain, 250' of 3/4" with a 85 lbs Manson.


If you go the winch route, I'd have the builder install some brackets or a bar with holes in it directly in front of the winch, so you can use a bar to help spool the rode as it goes into the winch.



Kinematic makes a bracket for the back of their winch so you can mount a capstan if you want to pull a second anchor.



My hydraulic system operates off of a pilot circuit, so when the pilot is not engaged, the systems puts out 500 psi. Usually, I can pull the anchor only using the 500 psi idle pressure of the hydraulic system. If the winch hesitates, I'll turn on the pilot and give the winch full power of 2500 psi.



I always cleat off the rode, but the winch has a spur gear that you can dog to take the load off of the drum.



Kinematic are all cast aluminum...very robust.



I replied to your PM Mako.




Conall

For those that don't have hydraulics. I saw one of these on a new Devlin boat, looked very nicely made.
https://www.ezanchorpuller.com/