Windlass dies, dead lift anchor and chain?

[Landshark]

If it's a sailboat use a halyard to raise the anchor. If it's a powerboat mount a heavy duty padeye some distance and behind the windlass. Then have a snatch block arrangement stored for when you need it.

 

[bll99a]

Anchor ball

Always used the anchor ball method when giant tuna fishing in 200 to 300 ft depth in my 42 Hatt. Works great with little physical effort.

 

[Carl Martin]

I found this online. Great name if nothing else.

https://www.thecranker.com/

 

[ranger58sb]

Look at "rope puller" instead of a come along. They're pretty strong pulling, but they pull a rope and that's safer for the surface of your boat. It'll pull the length of the rope you have it equipped with. Run it from the aft cleat, forward and hook the chain, and start cranking.

Thanks, didn't know about that option.

I found this online. Great name if nothing else.

The outer socket in our vertical windlass (see pic, above someplace) is the operative one when retrieving manually... and the socket doesn't rotate. Instead, the socket is simply used as an attachment point to manually revolve the whole top end of the windlass around it's center point.

The center socket rotates (cranks), but that's just to engage/disengage the clutch... no manual lifting involved.

-Chris

 

[sunchaser]

I found this online. Great name if nothing else.

https://www.thecranker.com/

 

[Hei mateau]

I had to hand crank my 20# anchor once - that was enough -
Remember, you’ll need to hand crank because of a few reasons - 1/ windlass blew up - 2/ batteries died - 3/ you’ve hooked bottom too successfully.
Don’t rely on your house battery, be prepared to cut the line (with a buoy on the line) - get back to it later.
I really like the ideas of external power options provided in this thread - drill power (need extra batteries) and The CRANKER.

 

[SteveK]

Don’t rely on your house battery

I totally agree, the windless should be powered by a start battery with engine running.

 

[rslifkin]

I totally agree, the windless should be powered by a start battery with engine running.

It depends on your charging setup. I power mine from the house bank as it's much larger than either start battery. And I have 2 engines, so it's a question of which start battery to power it from anyway. With my engines running, both alternators are feeding power to the house bank via ACRs, so the alternators are helping out regardless. But the bigger battery to make up any power beyond what the alternators can supply means less voltage dip and better windlass performance.

And if I opt to let out some extra rode at some point after anchoring, I can do that without drawing down a start battery that won't be recharged until I start an engine or the generator (solar only charges the house bank).

Personally, I don't like powering ANYTHING from the engine start batteries unless it's disabled when the ignition switches are off.

 

[Tator]

Our first boat-a '72 GB42-had a 120volt ac Plath windlass. Always had to have the genset on to raise anchor. I didn't realize how strange that set up was until we bought our next boat.

Tator