Chain versus Rope - Change over/- Mods to Anchorlift...

RIMCOas01

RIMCOas01

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Stavanger/- Oslo, Norway
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Hei ... hope you experts can give me some advice (the Pro's & Con's) ...

I have a stern-starboard beam mounted Anchorlift with remote (not freefall as considered "dangerous") running a 7.5kg. Danforth and 40mtrs of chain.

I am considering changing to "Rope" (with leaden core) mainly to reduce weight as HW heater is on same beam and with the added battery I have a bit of a list.

So my questions:
1. Is it an easy job to change the "windless bit" to take rope as I assume this would be necessary ?
2. What diam. /- strength of rope is suggested ?
3. Is there any "make of rope" considered better than others ?
4. If I have both chain (to the anchor) and then rope how does this affect the "windless" bit of the Anchorlift .

Any other info. appreciated .... apologies I am new to all this and not uptodate with the jargan yet

MVH
Martin
 
How often do you use this stern anchor? 40mtrs of chain is a lot for occasional use.
On the other hand the chain gypsy may need encouragement to wind rope, try octoplait.
You'll have to splice the octoplait to the chain, make sure your splice will pass through the hole.
 
You need some chain, at least 5m to avoid chafe on the bottom. I suggest you halve the chain to 20m and then use octoplait. That is all I have as my main anchor cable.
 
Hei ... thanks ... but more info needed:

My boat is 29ft and dry weighs 3250kgs (Gozzi29SC) bought with anchor stuff installed.

I believe a 5mtr chain and 30mtrs of "octoplait (if available over here)" would be sufficient... BUT

1. Do I need to change the "Gipsy (new word for me)"
2. What diam./- strength do you folk recommend (it is only for occasional <coastal > anchoring use but very deep fjords).

Sorry to be the dummy I am ... but I find suppliers are very biased and often "over the top" re. recommendations ... I want practical experience.

Tusen takk

Martin
 
I dont yet have experience of anchoring a yacht in the fiords, but have some relevant experience of the area.

your 5 + 30 would only be suitable for anchoring in max of 6-8 metres depth.
the 20m of chain provides a nice smoothing action and additional help to the anchor - so either go down that route or get a larger anchor.

You also need to work this problem from a different view - ie. what is the maximum depth you wish to be able to anchor in , and then what weight can you lift!
 
I guess it depends where in the fjords you are going to anchor. In two seasons on the west coast from Stavanger up to the Lofotens we never anchored in more than 10m usually in 5-7m. There are some very deep anchorages but more suited to big boats in my experience.

For our main anchor we used 30m of chain backed up with 70 metres of multiplait. We didn't ever use our stern anchor. We noticed that an awful lot of locals used rope straight to the anchor (via a shackle or two). This runs against UK practice but my guess is that it justified because the bottom tended to be either mud, silt or mixed sand and shells. And as you say it is for occasional use (I'd guess using a ringbolt to hold the bow). You'll know but others here might not that there are ringbolts all over the place and are usually in very sheltered anchorages so the usual caveats about needing to ride out a gale in open water don't necessarily apply.
 
speed_boat_crash_sm.jpg
 
You need to consider why you want a stern anchor. If just 'want it' for holding the stern to the beach in only nice weather sort of stuff you don't need much chain, 5mts would be plenty. If you 'need it' you'll want more chain, 10 plus min.

I don't know how deep they are but the word 'Fjords' sounds deep. Depth you are going to anchor in times 5 or more in total rode length. 40mts of rode sounds short.

The Anchorlift probably already has a rope to chain gypsy fitted. If you have the 'pockets' the chain sits in plus ridges coming out from the core of the gypsy (in where the chain can't fit) and some sort of a finger device which is spring loaded and wraps around part of the gypsy the chances are very very high you have. 99% of Rope to Chain winches have the finger /arm / lever thing that holds the rope in to the gypsy a bit. 90% of chain only winches don't have this.

Whatever size your gypsy is will dictate what chain and rope will work on it. You can't 'just' change chain or rope sizes on 98% of winches. All have a range and it is usually quite small if not tiny.

Don't use lead core, the chance it will give you grief in a short time is high. The winch will tear the lead out even if braided in. Been there, done that.

I'm guessing a bit and thinking you will have either a 7 or 8mm winch which means you will need 12 or 14mm rope, respectively. 7mm will be fine and 0.4 kg mt lighter than 8mm.

Look at your gypsy closely usually on the sides by where the chain sits and there should be a number or even a size cast in. READ IT CAREFULLY and if it is a size you're sweet to tune your system. If it is a code type number you will need to find a Anchorlift agent to find out what size it is. Should not be hard to do. Just to push this bit again READ IT CAREFULLY as some are very close to others and you'll only find out you read wrong once everything is back to together and ready to go, or so you thought. If there is nothing or you can't be sure what it says take it off (not hard at all), take it with you to a chain place, fit actual chains to it to find a match. Once you know your chain size the rope is easy.

Use a Nylon rope. Octiplait is good but make sure you find out what runs best. Asking people who actually use it is a good idea. As mentioned some chandlers push some over other for not quite the right reason if your a punter. I'd probably go 3 strand as most winches will run those but not all will run multiplaits. You have some good manufacturers in the EU so a good rope will not be hard to find.

One thing to remember - Things are usually a lot cheaper than some others for a simple reason, raw material cost. With many ropes and chains think 'life time' cost. Generally going on purchase price alone is not the best. Eg. Something costs $1 and lasts 2 years, another cost $3 and lasts 10 years. Which is the cheaper something? (lets play spot the economist /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif )

All quite easy once you know the size of your chain.
Boat safe.
 
Many thanks for all advice. The boat when purchased had the anchor winch/- stern fitting, etc already installed and over here we tend to anchor stern and run the bow into land... tie up and using the remote pull the boat back from shore. When reboarding naturally using the remote wind out the anchor and pull bow into land to board.
- we have rocks ... rarely is there a "soft bottom" ;-))

And apologies if I mislead my peers ... typical anchoring is between 5 and 20 metres (usually only a couple of boat lengths from shore)


Tusen takk... GMac

MVH
Martin
 
Impact!

I like the way the speedboat was tied to the piling after impact. I saw some flowers on a piling in Venice last year so this is not necessarily an isolated event. Still at least it wasn't a yacht that was Tboned!! Visited Boyd boats at LIBS Craig, they were taking lots of orders as I'm sure you know!!
 
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