Anchor Handling - some improvement required!

Anchor Handling - some improvement required!

Above - the stock 33-2 bow fitting.   Tidy and compact, it is elegant and nicely integrated into the design, but unfortunately it also allows the anchor chain to easily jump off the roller when retrieving.   

Update, August 2020

After a week-long cruise this summer I think I will explore having a bow fitting made, incorporating an anchor roller, chocks for dock and anchor lines, and provision for the tack of an asymmetrical spinnaker.  .I need to refine a design, develop a mock up, and determine the best materials and approach (am thinking cast aluminum or fabricated stainless steel.    This is not something I could make myself, though I could make a wood pattern for sand casting.  

Another option would be to add cheeks of some sort to the stock fitting, however this risks the home-made-looking fixes that blemish so many yachts  

Suggestions welcome!

Original 2019 post and thoughts to date:  

It seems I'm not the only 33-2 owner who would would like to improve the anchor handling setup.   Windstar runs with a 10kg bruce anchor, 50' of heavy chain and 100' of 4 plait nylon rode. This seems to be appropriate for the principal ground tackle.  The anchor rests in a small, low-sided  bow roller in a cast bow fitting,  with no means of securing the anchor, and little structure to keep the anchor or rode securely seated in the roller.   The rode is stowed in a generously-sized anchor locker, with room to spare.      Read on...

The exchange below started with Adrian asking whether any 33-2 owner had installed a windlass:

Choose your anchor carefully. I have a 15 Kg Bruce knock off and about 60 feet of 5/16 anchor chain and that’s really all I want to haul by hand at 68. That anchor has never slipped and others have felt comfortable to raft up alongside over night. I wear thick rubber gloves to retrieve my anchor. Sometimes the anchor holds too hard to break free by hand so then I tie off on a cleat and use engine power to break it free. That vertical windlass you refer to is called a capstan. So far I have resisted installing a windlass on my 35MKII mainly because of the cost and work involved. Maybe a smallish say 10 Kg Rocna anchor would be better 

Dwight

On Sat, Sep 28, 2019 at 8:50 AM Dave S via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote:

I see no response yet, and have until recently (just turned 56....) felt that the 33-2 was really too small to warrant a windlass.   Am now on the fence.   Also noticed a 32 at my marina with what appears to be a tidy installation of a vertical windlass.  (Adrian, will try to get some pics.)

 Would like to ask/add a related question - has anyone improved anchor handling in general?   Am happy that the 33-2 has a roller and chain locker, however I had some excitement this season hand-retrieving 50’ of fully extended chain in a stiff breeze and chop.  The line then later the chain hopped off the roller and slammed/wedged into the pulpit stanchion base as the boat sheered and bobbed about - very exciting and extremely strenuous for a solo sailor.   (With little sea room astern, but that’s a seamanship issue). 

No bail on the roller, and the poor lead from hand-hauling didn’t help. Really, a short sprit plus the parallel-to-deck lead for the chain afforded by a windlass would be ideal,  but that feels like a lot of infrastructure for a small lightweight boat.  Any thoughts?

Dave

Windstar 33-2 

We have a 25# CQR, 25' of chain, and 200' of 3-strand nylon.

Getting the nylon up is not a big problem even at 74 yrs, but the chain as Dave points out, besides being hard to handle manually, will hop the centerline roller, then grind against the pulpit and/or the roller furler drum because of the awkward lead as you pull on the chain.

I am thinking to at least install a separate overhanging anchor roller, offset one side of the headstay, to improve the lead of the rode, and house the anchor once under weigh. The CQR is a tight fit in the anchor locker, and brings a ton of mud aboard even when bucket-washed. 

There is very little room to install a windlass on the 33, both on deck and below (for the vertical axis motor), but the nice thing would be the chain gypsy to pull that last 25' of chain rode. I am looking at a hand crank Muir VM500  but how to discharge the rode into the anchor locker? Also it looks like Muir windlass cranks in one direction only, so you would need enough room to make complete circles with a winch handle. Better if you could free-ratchet back, then pull (or push) for power.

Dave, pictures of your neighbor's installation would be most welcome.

Adrian 

OK Adrian, here's one pic.   The owner wasn't around today so I couldn't learn much, however i did peek inside the locker and it is unmodified, so the chain wraps around the gypsy as you'd imagine and is allowed to fall into the anchor locker.   This would be a tight fit on the 33-2 and is perhaps not feasible due to the foredeck padeye.   I have seen an installation on 35-3 IIRC where the windlass was mounted on the back  10" of the anchor locker hatch which had been cut and fixed in place (and reinforced obviously).   The forward triangle of the hatch,  though much smaller, still served its intended function.

Dave

83ish C&C 32 - notice windlass but also the more robust bow fitting than the 33-2

Below - 33-2 ‘Big Lou’ and her big roller.         

Similar Yachts - how do they do it?

Below are photos of what I believe is a Beneteau, with a general arrangement that would work on the C&C 33-2. 

Similar principle on a 50' custom aluminum passagemaker.

I wonder if a short, removable sprit could be incorporated  or considered on the port side?

Niagara 35, what appears to be a well-thought-out cruising setup from the factory.

And various others, mostly workarounds by owners experiencing the same issues.

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