Manual Windlass

[oakleyb]

Are they that bad ? I dont have one at the moment and dont really want to try and get cabling from batteries at the rear to where windlass will be sited.

 

[pmagowan]

Are they that bad ? I dont have one at the moment and dont really want to try and get cabling from batteries at the rear to where windlass will be sited.

Depends what for. I use a manual on my 28' boat but I pull chain up by hand. The windlass is for breaking out the anchor and for letting it drop. It works very well for that but would be tremendously slow to pull in all the chain.

 

[Poignard]

Depends what for. I use a manual on my 28' boat but I pull chain up by hand. The windlass is for breaking out the anchor and for letting it drop. It works very well for that but would be tremendously slow to pull in all the chain.

+1

I also have a 28' boat with a 35lb anchor and 8mm size chain. My windlass is a manual Lofrans Royal.

 

[prv]

I had a manual ungeared windlass on Kindred Spirit, the kind that looks a bit like a sheet winch with a gypsy instead of a drum.

I'm not sure it added much over simply pulling the chain in by hand; the slight additional leverage of the handle being at the cost of a less effective working position. About the only benefit was the ratchet action so that you didn't need to hold the weight of the chain when not hauling, but a simple chain stopper on the deck or as part of the bow roller would provide that.

The back-and-forth windlasses look powerful but very slow.

I don't think anyone sells new ones any more due to lack of demand, so it will have to be second-hand.

Personally I would either install an electric windlass or stick with hand-hauling, depending on the size of boat. Once you've gone to the effort of arranging a navel pipe, mounting a backing plate, drilling and sealing holes in the deck, etc etc for a manual windlass, you might as well spend the extra half-day to also run cables and have a powered one.

Pete

 

[Kelpie]

My first boat had no windlass, current boat has a manual one, I've never had an electric one.
The manual one is great for breaking out, and for keeping your hands clean. If there is no rush then I sometimes do use it to bring the anchor all the way up.
I can see how an electric windlass could be very useful for a singlehander, as it's not ideal to be drifting down with the anchor and chain dangling off the bow.

 

[thecommander]

Good question. The problem is they seem as expensive as electric ones.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

I used a manual windlass for a 60lb CQR and 10 mm chain. It was slow work and to be honest tiring as well as one cranked the handle back and forth. I have hauled in the same CQR and chain by myself and it was quicker but far more exhausting than the winch; man hauling is a rare thing, not something I would want to do routinely at this size.

Are they that bad, no not at all, but I would not bother with a windlass for a smaller chain and anchor. I am not strong and have asthma, its all in the technique.

 

[doug748]

Like Kelpie I have found mine handy for bringing the boat up very short if the anchor is snagged or otherwise difficult to budge.
I have also found it useful for bringing in a warp when mooring fore and aft in a strong cross tide. I would not be without it really but I am not sure I would fit one from scratch either...but, on reflection, I probably would.

 

[Poignard]

Being able to let the required length of chain run freely out of the chain locker over the freewheeling gypsy instead of having to range it along the side of the deck is a great advantage; especially if you ever have to anchor in a hurry.

 

[prv]

Being able to let the required length of chain run freely out of the chain locker over the freewheeling gypsy instead of having to range it along the side of the deck is a great advantage; especially if you ever have to anchor in a hurry.

I think a lot of the things on this thread depend on the size of your boat and ground tackle. I used to just rapidly hand-over-hand it up out of the chain locker and over the bow, but I wouldn't like to try that with BoB's 10mm chain and 60lb anchor

Pete

 

[fastjedi]

I have a 31 foot boat and have fitted a manual windless because
1. It's compact and fits in the anchor locker without modifying the platform
2. Took me less than an hour to fit

Like others have said, I'm happy to manage the anchor by hand on a day to day basis, one day it might be the difference between being stuck and not?

 

[Kelpie]

It's also really useful for other things- I use mine to check my mooring. I suppose I could take a line back to a sheet winch but it would be a lot more hassle and you have a lot less leverage to work with.

 

[Tranona]

I have an SL Anchorman on my 26' and it works very well because it is well aft of the bow and I can sit on the coachroof to operate it with a 10" handle. Horizontal manual windlasses are still available from Vetus and Lofrans, but the price differential to a small electric model is now relatively small.

 

[jwilson]

There is little difference in cost between a manual and electric windlass, and a huge difference in convenience. You can use a VSR with relatively light cabling to feed a quite small starter battery in the bow near the windlass rather than run heavy cables from an aft battery.

I have used both, and as others have said the manual windlass main use is breaking out an anchor, once the anchor has broken out you tend to haul the chain and anchor in by hand as it's too slow to crank it up on the windlass. Electric you just push the button. It only uses really high current for the short breakout phase, after that loads are quite low.

 

[oakleyb]

The VSR option sounds interesting, i was always of the opinion that i needed to run large cable between banks. So i'm no expert with electrics, could you explain this in more detail - i already have a VSR between Starter and House

 

[mainsail1]

I laboured with a manual windlass for many years but finally decided ten years ago to install an electric windlass. I would never go back as it is so much easier, especially as you get older.
I bit the bullet and ran thick cables from my battery bank to the new windlass. I am glad I did that even though the electrician offered me the alternative option of an additional battery close to the bow.

 

[geem]

In my experience the S&L 555 was the best manual windlass. If you can pick one up second hand they are worth having. Two speed and you can pull chain in almost as fast as an electric windlass. They cost a fortune new. We had one for years on our last boat.

 

[Tidewaiter2]

In my experience the S&L 555 was the best manual windlass. If you can pick one up second hand they are worth having. Two speed and you can pull chain in almost as fast as an electric windlass. They cost a fortune new. We had one for years on our last boat.

We went from a SL electric drum and gypsy with 8mm x 60m back to a SL555 a friend was demounting from his Westerly just as ours went phut yet again just before we set off for Brittany.
Used the emergency handle on the leccy so often it might as well have been a manual!

So, no big deal, nice big lever, two speed, well greased, steady rocking motion to and fro, good chain markers, job done, cheaper than gym fees.

Biggest hassle is the chain piling up under the navel pipe. Tried a small, then cut down traffic cone, but think a MK2 115's chain locker is just too small for 60m of 10mm, but 'between cold iron, a man may sleep secure', and 10mm gives more cantenary that 8mm with a good long stretchy snubber.

 

[Woodlouse]

I don't think I'd be willing to sail much on a boat over 30 feet without a windlass of some sort. I'm not shy of manual ones since that's what I grew up with and because I've experienced the alternative of hauling up by hand.

I have a soft spot for the vertical back and forth jobs. They're not quick but Christ are they powerful.

 

[TQA]

Bought a 44 ft mono has my forever boat. It was well set for cruising but had a manual windlass [ Seatiger ]

Almost the only thing I did was to fit a Lofrans Tigress in place of the Seatiger.

One of my better decisions. Now my 5 ft 100lb crew can pull in 200ft of 3/8th chain and a 60lb Rocna with the press of a toe.