Anchor jumping off bow roller when being raised

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Esmerelda

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With our latest boat, we have the luxury of an electric windlass to raise the anchor. However we have encountered a problem where the anchor seems to jump and bounce about as it comes onto the anchor windlass and one time it jumped off the bow roller completely. The anchor also always seems to arrive on the bow roller on its back, which doesn't help as it also needs to roll over

We are thinking of trying to add some sort of ring on the bow roller to stop this happening but a wander around the marina this weekend showed this to be a rarity

We don't have an anchor chain swivel and I wondered if this might help stop the anchor trying to stow on its back?

If anyone has any suggestions re kit or technique, this would be much appreciated - the electric windlass was my favourite toy and has now been relegated to something I slightly dread...

Thanks in anticipation
 
Do you have a roller with a deep groove in the middle to help hold the chain centrally? Or perhaps higher cheeks / side plates either side of the roller are needed.

The swivel might not stop the anchor coming up the wrong way round, although it might, but it will make it much easier to spin it around the right way before stowing.

Lots of advice on any "anchor swivel" thread on here.

Richard
 
Does the chain leaps off the rollers before the anchor arrives at the roller? Or is it that when the anchor arrives it leaps off before it can get to the stowed position?

If it is the chain that is leaping off by itself, then a large hoop over the top of the rollers may help.

If it is the anchor that leaps off when it arrives at the rollers, then that's almost certainly down to the anchor arriving at the rollers inverted: when gravity tries to turn it the right way up it rolls off the rollers..... Fitting a swivel, stopping the anchor just before it comes to the roller and turning it the right way round would stop the problem of it leaping off.

The anchor almost looks as if it's too big for the roller. The roller looks as if it was designed to accommodate a CQR anchor: the pivoting part is meant to come up to the horizontal and the holes in the tilting part of the roller would have originally had a bar through them to help locate the anchor and stop the chain leaping off. The holes in the fixed part of the roller would have taken a pin to hold the stowed anchor in place. The much thicker stock of the Bruce means that the pins were removed: although the the anchor stows and launches from the rollers, it's not ideal.
 
I don't think the side cheeks for your roller are high enough. I use the same design of anchor and when the anchor is stowed, a pin is inserted through the cheeks and engaging with the tripping hole in the anchor. The hole in your anchor is way up above the cheeks.

I have never been convinced about the perceived benefit of a swivel. An anchor is an inanimate object. Even with a swivel, it still won't know which way to face. I use a bent link, shackled to the anchor, which ensures that as soon as it comes to the bow roller, the anchor is turned the correct way.
 
Maybe rotating (twist wise) the chain 180 degrees on the capstan and bow roller might help.. When the anchor is stowed the chain should not have any twist between winch and anchor.
 
hi

i have the same boat as you and have used both Delta and Kobra anchors - both stow the right way up and i have not had and problems with them jumping off
 
NormanS said:
I have never been convinced about the perceived benefit of a swivel. An anchor is an inanimate object. Even with a swivel, it still won't know which way to face. I use a bent link, shackled to the anchor, which ensures that as soon as it comes to the bow roller, the anchor is turned the correct way.
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What the swivel does do is allow rotation of the anchor by 180 degrees when it comes up the wrong way. When we spent our experimental season without a swivel this was our biggest hassle, as rotating it without a swivel was too much for Jill, as she is our foredeck crew in anchorages. I know about your cranked device but we found the cranked Osculati swivel to introduce far more problems than it solved, so we quickly went back to a Kong swivel.

To the OP, I suggest that a grooved roller, groove wide enough to take the chain on edge and the shank of the anchor, will solve most of your problems and prevent the anchor from sliding side-to-side when you tack. The photo shows our previous ones: I have now had two new ones made of rather better dimensions, in Acetal at a cost of £35 for the two.
2e3c7dba53c001e30119dac1837bccde_zps949e9e7e.jpg
 
Esmerelda said:
In case it helps, here is a picture of the bow roller

View attachment 57153
Click to expand...

I cannot understand why commercial boat builders fit such a pathetic bow fitting.

This is mine with the same kind of anchor.

IMGP2734_zpsh0hoy68w.jpg


The anchor when hoisted the correct way round will hit the bow, causing damage to the gel coat and will be knocked round to come up inverted as it reaches the bow roller.

The roll/side plates ate too small to retain the chain and anchor stock and need a retaining pin to hold the chain in not only when recovering but when anchored with the bow bouncing up and down in a swell.

You need a much stronger method of retaining the anchor when stowed. On my previous boat I had a 12 mm dis pin through the anchor and on one rough passage the anchor bounced around so much the the 12mm pin was bent and I could not use the anchor. I now have 2 16mm dia pins holding both anchors, a home made spade and a Bruce.

I don't understand what the drooping piece is as if it is supposed to be a self launching/ recovery device it should have 2 rollers 1 each side of the pivot. Yours only has place for 1 roler at rge front. Mah be just to give a reduced angle for the chain to run over but the roller looks missing allowing the anchor further back than it should be.
 
Thanks all for various replies

Based on the comments, the first plan is to fit an anchor swivel and also to swap the anchor over to a delta anchor that came with the boat as well to see if that's a better fit. If the jumping problem persists, I will look at extending the sides of the bow roller

I'll also change the red rope to something more substantial!

Cheers
 
I have never had my anchor jump off the bow roller but it does sometimes come up twisted. I used to have a swivel but removed it as a potential source of failure. I have not heard of these cranked swivels but they sound interesting. What has the problems been with them that one person quoted? Can you get them without a swivel?
 
bobgarrett said:
I have never had my anchor jump off the bow roller but it does sometimes come up twisted. I used to have a swivel but removed it as a potential source of failure. I have not heard of these cranked swivels but they sound interesting. What has the problems been with them that one person quoted? Can you get them without a swivel?
Click to expand...

My bent link has no swivel, and it rotates the anchor to the correct orientation every time 100%.
 
Esmerelda said:
With our latest boat, we have the luxury of an electric windlass to raise the anchor. However we have encountered a problem where the anchor seems to jump and bounce about as it comes onto the anchor windlass and one time it jumped off the bow roller completely.
If anyone has any suggestions re kit or technique, this would be much appreciated - the electric windlass was my favourite toy and has now been relegated to something I slightly dread...

Thanks in anticipation
Click to expand...

We added the side bits to our anchor roller to stop the chain getting jammed between the edge of the roller and the frame, Simple and works a treat
 

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I would be inclined to remove those 2 feeder plates & let the chain go straight onto the bow roller & see if that helps.
Then if it does, drill some holes in the plates & bolt them on to the roller cheeks to make the cheeks higher & perhaps project forward say 25mm. You then may be able to stick a pin through to stop the chain jumping altogether & still clear the anchor stock if the extension pieces allowed you to go high enough
 
Mac: I do stop if it its the wrong way around. The trouble is I don't know what to do next as it will literally hang the wrong way around. I then winch a little bit to get it onto the roller, which is when it jerks and bounces and then when it settles, it spins the right way around (as it is effectively top heavy). As can be seen from the photo, it doesn't have to bounce much to come off the roller. The thought of doing it when there are waves around and the boat is pitching is a significant worry

I think I was hoping that there is some kind of a technique I should be using, as the boat is 13 years old and I assume if there was some kind of a kit issue, it would have been sorted..
 
macd said:
Esmerelda: do you watch the anchor onto the roller and stop it if arriving the wrong way up? Your windless may be electric, but it's far from automatic.
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Hmm, I have seen people do anchor retrieval entirely form the cockpit, by remote. Scary? I have to say I always watch the process at the bow, and slow everything down gently for the last 2 metres or so. Our bow rollers are similar in design to the OP. We had a Bruce, but use a Manson these days. Occasionally it needs a manual tweak to get it finished off. I don't mind since I need to be there to secure the anchor and the anchor locker anyway?
If you drag up a ball of week or mud, I wouldn't really want that all over the bow!
 
We also use an over-sized Bruce and suffering a similar problem, we have significantly improved - though not cured - it by adjusting the end shackles (I can't see yours in the photo, so this may be totally irrelevant) A shackle that'll pass through our 10mm chain is too small to span the 20kg Bruce's shank, so we have two shackles there, a 14/15mm one to the anchor, then a smaller 12mm one connecting that shackle to the chain - I've seen the results of too many (cheap?) swivel failures to trust our boat to one. We found that the anchor capsizes were significantly reduced when we'd 1. screwed home the pin on the larger (anchor) shackle, peened-over the end threads to secure it, then cut/ground-off the turning tang at the pin's other end. 2. Ensured that the turning tang on the smaller (chain) shackle was orientated uppermost when the anchor's the correct way around. Our suspicions were - borne out by the improvement we've had - that it was the tangs on these shackles 'catching' on the bow roller which created or at least exacerbated our capsizing problem.
 
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