Fisheagle's Anchor Winch

[Coddy]

As some of you may know Allan has recently had a winch installed on his MF755 Marlin and he asked me to try to do some sort of write up about it as it may be of interest to others.

 

Early in 2016, Allan was talking to me about getting a winch  for his boat. Should it be mounted at the front, side, gypsy or drum, vertical or horizontal, there were some many options.

 

Side/cockpit mounted would be too restrictive for going up to the bow and then there was the need for a storage box for all the rope & chain let alone pulleys, rollers and the mounting of them made this option impractical.

 

After many discussions with various people and companies Allan came down to bow mounted but could he have free fall without going up the front to release the clutch? Simple answer in this instance is no!

 

He then looked where the winch would be mounted and how, was the area strong enough, would there be sufficient locker space for all the rope and chain and enough drop from the winch to allow it to work correctly? Should he go for a drum and gypsy, gypsy only or drum only? Again talking to many people to get their opinions and experiences he decided to go for gypsy only with the motor mounted horizontally. To cut a long story short he ended up with a Lofrans X2 vertical winch, details can be found here http://www.lofrans.com/product/3-Lofrans-vertical-anchor-windlass/5002-x2-alu-project-x2

 

  Here is a picture of the standard bow area on Allan's boat

 

What was need next was to ensure there was a strong plate to mount the winch and also to allow a self launching roller assembly.

Allan then had a chat with my son Matt who has a fabrication business, ZRS Engineering Ltd, to see what he suggested and a plan was put together to make a 6mm plate in 316 stainless steel which would have a slight extension to allow the fitting of the roller system without it knocking into the bow of the boat on launch and recovery.

It was discovered that the bow roller that Allan had purchased was not quite the right length for an overhang and the rollers did not work how Allan wanted so again Matt made some modifications and welded it to the support plate. Here are some pictures with the winch mounted on the plate in Matt's workshop.

 

 

 

 

The plate was then taken down to the boat to check to fitting and to mark and line up on the fiberglass ready to cut the holes and fitting locations.

 

 

The above picture shows Allan taking the picture as the stainless steel was almost mirror finished.

 

Various holes were drilled and Allan had arranged with his electrician to mount the winch and wire it all in including having some switches installed by the anchor locker as well as the normal switch in the cabin. Whilst he was wiring this in Allan got him to change most of his fuses to the LED ones that light up if they blow.

 

As the winch was an 8mm gypsy Allan had to buy some calibrated chain and some new anchor warp for it all to work correctly, he got a great deal from Peter in Quay West chandlery who agreed to splice the anchorplait to the chain.

 

I helped Allan to get all his rope and chain through the winch and all was needed to get out to sea and let it wind in the warp under normal conditions.

 

The angle of the rope was spot on so that the warp could be tied off on the bollard and not allowing the winch to take the loading of the boat when at anchor.

 

A temporary anchor securing strap was made up to that the winch was not under tension in the stowed position.

 

 

 

A few trials have taken place and it was noticed that a couple of small issues have arisen but these have been sorted and more trails await Allan's return from his holiday.

 

Watch this space for any updates. If anyone is interested in have a similar winch fitted to a MF755 have a word with Matt as he has made a template ready for the next one.

Website http://www.zrs-engineering.com

Email Matt@zrs-engineering.com

 

[2006holmwood]

Looks really good,nice welding.

but this may be a stupid question but why have you got rope between chain and anchor ?

[Steve S]

Good stuff, looks a very well thought out and executed improvement for retrieval.

[fisherman1055]

I like the idea of the rope at the end of the chain to allow it to go through the bow roller

 

I might try that on my boat as I need to trip the bow anchor

 

Always good ideas on here 

 

Tony

[great white]

Looks like a nice set up Dave

 

Does the swivel on the chain help?

 

Many boats at work that are rigged this way use the swivel straight to the anchor from chain. But they are not rigged to be tripped.

 

I am not confident in those swivels, so just run my chain to the end on the anchor and trip it with cable ties as Allan does. The down side when it trips is that someone has to re rig it up on the bow.

 

In deeper water we still use an Alderney ring set up.

[Coddy]

Hi Charlie

 

Still early days at the moment but Allan's still has his Alderney buoy should he need it and he was talking about using it in deep water like you.

 

I know Allan is not keen to loose and anchors so I suspect the trip will remain, however he did look at the anchors that have a slot in the shank but if I recall correctly this puts the end of the chain too close to the gypsy.

 

When Allan is back from his holiday I am sure he will be trying it out and modifying things to make life simpler.

 

I do know that the anchor does not always want to come up at the right angle to self-stow but with a 7.5Kg anchor it is not too difficult to man-handle the last bit.