LIfting the anchor singlehanded.

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tt65

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Have recently started single handed sailing on my W.Fulmar 32 ft, bilge keel, tiller steered. I am finding that lifting the anchor is a nightmare. It simply takes too long to do. My bow is a bit congested with Pulpit, double bow roller with forestay attached, furling drum, furling line, SL manual windlass and my big feet.

What I normally do is to pull the anchor in entirely by hand which seems quicker than using the windlass until anchor shaft just reaches the bow roller, leaving the anchor just clear of the water, jam the chain into the gypsy and then shoot back to the cockpit where the engine is idling and the tiller is swinging wildly by now. This leaves a messy loose pile of chain on deck and and a muddy anchor swinging off the bow roller. I then move into clear water, stop and sort that lot out. The whole business is fraught and generally messy.

All of that with minimum tide running, I dread to think what a mess I might make if there is any significant tide running and/or the anchor is difficult to break out and the anchorage is congested! I would probably end up staying until everyone else has gone home. I generally have 15 to 20 metres of chain out.

Any one got any advice to make things easier and safer for me. I have done seaching here and not come up with anything useful.
 
Do you have a tiller pilot?

If you had the raymarine tiller pilot ST2000+ then you could get the wireless remote - this would mean you could put the engine in slow ahead, get up front, get the anchor up (but not away) whilst maintaining some sort of steering.

Another method would be an electric windlass with controls back in the cockpit ?
 
It's not easy, that's why people have crew.
I have on occassion resorted to cleating off the anchor chain with the anchor still in the water, then going gently astern into enough space to sort everything out. Not elegant, but it seems to work. If you leave the anchor say 1m under water you could go slowly forwards without it hitting the hull, at least enough to steer perhaps?
I guess the electric windlass makers are onto something.
 
The alternative might be to walk back with the chain so you're pulling it into a bucket into the cockpit. Whether this is feasible without the chain taking chunks of coachroof with it very much depends on the arrangement of your boat.
 
tt65 said:
My bow is a bit congested with Pulpit, double bow roller with forestay attached, furling drum, furling line, SL manual windlass and my big feet.

What I normally do is to pull the anchor in entirely by hand which seems quicker than using the windlass until anchor shaft just reaches the bow roller, leaving the anchor just clear of the water, jam the chain into the gypsy and then shoot back to the cockpit where the engine is idling and the tiller is swinging wildly by now. This leaves a messy loose pile of chain on deck and and a muddy anchor swinging off the bow roller. I then move into clear water, stop and sort that lot out.
Click to expand...

That all sounds familiar. When I changed from an ancient working boat to a comparatively "modern" grp yacht I thought things would be easier but a lot aren't. The lugger had a comparatively clear bow, a rope/chain rode and a mizzen which kept everything under control so even though the anchor and cable were stowed under the cockpit side decks anchor handling was always very calm and controlled. Now I find feeding the chain through the navel pipe is slow and then I have to wiggle the anchor under the pulpit (a bit like one of those metal chinese puzzles when trying to hurry) and the roller furling line before I can stow it. I've recently got a tiller pilot but that's no good without steerage way!

I am considering modifying the foredeck so I can stow a second rope/chain rode for use in settled conditions or short stops, perhaps I might even risk the little CQR (does the swear filter allow those 3 letters?) again in calm anchorages with little tide. I am thinking along the lines of a deck hatch over the anchor locker with a tier added forward for the second rode.
 
sighmoon said:
The alternative might be to walk back with the chain so you're pulling it into a bucket into the cockpit. Whether this is feasible without the chain taking chunks of coachroof with it very much depends on the arrangement of your boat.
Click to expand...

That's more or less what I used to be able to do with my old boat, didn't need the bucket though and she had clear bows and wood decks.
 
If space/ time are tight, as soon as the anchor is no longer holding, make the chain off, then go back to the cockpit, and motor very slowly into deeper water until you have more space (I've not found it necessary to reverse).

You can now drift, whilst cleaning and stowing. Dragging the chain and anchor through the water helps the cleaning, of course.

In fact, it's sometimes necessary to do this even with a crew. The only difference is that they can be cleaning/ stowing en-route to the clear space.
 
I rarely single-hand nowadays, but I used to, occasionally, and I became familiar with your problems.
I tried remote 'In-gear/Out-gear' lines to the engine lever: not good, because enough force to overcome the spring-loaded indents gave too high revs: you can't easily 'nudge' with a line!
My solution was to have the engine running only in case I had to return to the cockpit in an emergency. I ran light lines (4 or 5mm) from the tiller, behind the secondary winches and through tiny blocks secured to the stanchions at mid-rail height to the forward legs of the pulpit; a round-turn to provide a bit of friction and the ends were hitched together. That gave me a closed loop, easily moved, but 'staying-put' so that I could keep the helm under control. With tiller centralised and the mainsheet eased for close reaching, I hoisted the main with enough topping-lift tension to scandalise it a little, and went to the pulpit. My boat handles easily under main alone, and so does the Fulmar (I've sailed the fin-keel version quite a bit; I assume the bilge-keeler is not too different).
To start sailing, just helm-over; in a stream she would sheer and fill most of the main: in slack water I would quickly pay out more cable to fall astern and sheer. After sailing off, tacking towards the anchor and hauling, as often as needed, I would break out and lift well clear of the bottom, take a couple of turns, then bring her head-to-wind and centre the helm while finishing off.
Like all else in sailing, it needed a bit of practice in open water to refine the technique for use among other anchored yachts.
My rodes are 25m chain, then nylon. If you use all-chain, it will not be so easy, but perhaps worth a try.
 
Only two solutions:

Get and electric windlass that feeds the anchor chain quickly and efficiently into the anchor locker...expensive!

Get good looking competent female crew...I have a cadre of 4 but all are in Miami or the Caribbean so I can't lend you one!

Good luck Phil
 
Just an idle thought, as you really need to control the boat and you can winch remotely from the cockpit the main thing your lacking is sight of the bow/chain area - what about a small camera, how would that work out.


If you use a web cam we could also see and comment.:rolleyes:
 
Well it sounds as thought you are doing it all right except that I would avoid letting the tiller swing around-if you have a tillerpilot so much the better.

Time is your enemy, innit, especially in a crowded/tidal/windy anchorage.

For what it is worth ( and I have done enough of this whilst singlehanding, got the muddy t-shirt and grey hairs), it is worth using the windlass to get as much chain as you can into the chainlocker AND break out the anchor but then let it rest on the seabed, just holding the boat in place. The boat will probably be swinging around slightly but not actually going anywhere, it is still tethered to the seabed by the drag of your anchor still sitting on the mud. Now, timing it so that as the boat swings it is momentarily pointing into the wind and tide, or when it is just starting to swing to the desired side for making your getaway, smartly haul up the few short metres of chain left,dumping them on the deck, secure the anchor horizontally, and walk back to the cockpit and get under way.( you have more time than you think !)

Once at sea, say with the mainsail up and a steady, heeled boat, go forward with a bucket, slosh off any remaining mud and stow the remaining chain.

With practise this is as good as I ever got it, and you are working 'with' the boat/wind/tide and not mucking around with engine controls from afar and peering backwards from the foredeck....

And when you win the lottery...

Mate of mine of vast experience has a wirelessly remote-controlled anchor winch and self stowing anchor and I think that is the ideal way forward ( if you will excuse the pun), but of course such perfection comes at a price.
 
Lifting the anchor single handed

I have had the same problem for the last five years, two saving graces are I am in the Med ie. no tidal flow and I have an anchor locker (no windlass) with the roller furling abaft of it, it seems this is peculiar to the Granada and I manage exactly as you say, heave in the anchore rode and chain(probably quicker as I am dropping it to the locker as opposed to getting it down a tube) secure it just below pulpit and take off to space and sort the lot out. I have a tiller pilot St2000 (how do single handers manage without one?) and in clear water can sort everything out whilst slowly motoring. Not having the funds for remotes either anchor or steering I am pretty well stuck with it and only struggle when particularly windy. So all in all I have not seen any sensible suggestions above but eagerly await a viable alternative?
 
I do it quite a lot. Not saying that I've cracked it but I enjoy singlehanding. Even if my son is with me, I might leave him asleep and get going.
I tend to find shallow water (doing the calcs), so that there is a minimum to retrieve. I also "drive" around my probable swinging area and check for uniform depth before dropping the hook.
You'd need to lash the tiller or use a tillermate/pilot. Then I normally find that I can adjust engine revs so that the boat will nose into the tide and make it easier to quickly retrieve the rode and chain. It is quicker to haul it up manually and it does help me that I can easily dump it all through the deck into the locker. Maybe it's worth looking at a mod if you can't do that?

If other boats have come to join you in your chosen spot away from the pack... or if the wind is up, yes it's tricky. Carefully dragging the anchor and an amount of chain into deeper water will need to be done, as others have said.

I liked the idea of rigging up a loop to steer but I have wheel steering. A remote would be a luxury but less of an achievement? :)
 
After a backbreaking ,titanic struggle with anchour in crowded harbour I could only look on with amazement as a superior english yacht helmed by an old wrikley zoomed in dropped anchour,raised anchour ,moved to new spot dropped anchour,raised anchour and left the harbour,he never left the cockpit!
 
mogy said:
After a backbreaking ,titanic struggle with anchour in crowded harbour I could only look on with amazement as a superior english yacht helmed by an old wrikley zoomed in dropped anchour,raised anchour ,moved to new spot dropped anchour,raised anchour and left the harbour,he never left the cockpit!
Click to expand...

He must have read this blog and forgot his camera :-)

"Just an idle thought, as you really need to control the boat and you can winch remotely from the cockpit the main thing your lacking is sight of the bow/chain area - what about a small camera, how would that work out."
 
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