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Old 07-15-2019, 07:01 AM   #4
wkearney99
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City: Bethesda, MD
Vessel Name: Solstice
Vessel Model: Grand Banks 47 Eastbay FB
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 2,164
Quote:
Originally Posted by twistedtree View Post
Yes, absolutely. They all operate in parallel, I.e. you can use any control to operate the windless.

The only caution I can think of is that when auto deploying or retrieving, it’s controlled by the panel and the only place you can stop it is at the panel. You can’t hit. Foot button and stop it. So if using the auto panel, you need to man it.
Excellent point regarding auto and local control. We have two helm stations (lower and flybridge) and both have good line of sight AND are within shouting distance. So any deployment issues would be relatively easy to notice and handle from one of these control panels. A friend has had a Maxwell panel on his past and current boats and operating it seemed relatively straightforward. The only wrinkle being the anchor doesn't drop itself off the roller when the rode is loosened. It has to be manually lifted a bit to get it to deploy. This was true on the friend's last boat too. So there's a bump to loosen the rode, lift and then automatic deployment to a certain length of rode.

I'm looking at ways to mitigate some of stress during the anchoring process. Using one of these as a rode counter would handle one aspect. The next is seeing the rode angle and chain filth during retrieval (to help use boat motion to clear gunk from the chain) . I'm considering a bow camera of some sort to help ease this. That or I may trade out roles to have my wife operate the engines while I handle the anchor retrieval. Which is a different sort of challenge...

A lot of this starts leading toward getting a wireless Yacht Controller setup. Controlling thrusters, throttles and anchor from a single remote would be fantastic... but as yet it's not been stressful 'enough' to get the process started.
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2005 Eastbay 47 FB - Solstice, w/Highfield CL360 tender
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