Stainless steel anchor chain

Petem, the delta and I'd guess rocna + ultra self right as the come onto the roller. Best done gently as neeves says. See 1:25 video below. . However, they won't self right if the anchor comes thru any kind of hawsehole and the distance between the cheeks of the roller isn't as great as the height of the shank, and that is a common enough scenario

Neeves, the NZ made chain counters are very accurate indeed. I've never had mine miss even one revolution of the gypsy in 5 years and two boats worth of use. However I agree it is best to watch the anchor - for that the ancam frees up a crew member to do something useful like fix the gin and tonic.

 
We tend to restrict the gin or chardonnay till later in the day - but having crew that can make decent coffee, ready and piping hot after the anchor is housed and the sun is rising is a real boon :)
 
How do you guys secure the anchor when at sea? You are retrieving 'remotely' but you cannot lock the anchor without going forward. I would have thought punching into a bit of chop at the speeds you can make would potentially release the clutch - or are your clutches more sophisticated than ours?
 
I was about to reply smarty pants - and then saw the final comment! :) But certainly that's what is needed - not really all the complex.

So --- currently, once the drinks are served you need to send a minion up to the bow to manually secure with the chain lock - and then you can release the windlass, a touch, to take the load off the shaft, bearings etc etc??
 
J,

I'd have thought that none bothers locking the anchor, at least down here none I know does. Just rests based on the windlass clutch. Mine is a horizontal one and the clutch seems to be more than enough for this.

cheers

V.
 
Neeves said:
If you have a variety of different foredecks hands they sometimes lack the care, or concentration - then having a few links between the Boomerang and anchor is advantageous.
Click to expand...
Agreed which is why I think the 'foredeck hands' (my SWMBO will just love being labelled as that) is one of the most important jobs on the boat and the skipper has to have total confidence in him/her to do that job properly otherwise you can a lot of damage. Personally I dont like the idea of controlling this operation remotely from the helm and IMHO it is always better for the 'foredeck hand' to be in control of the winch and guide the helmsman with hand signals to move the boat in whichever direction puts least strain on the chain and winch. Obviously this might be more difficult if the boat has a hawse pipe rather than bow roller

FWIW we have a Quick chain counter on our boat as well as marked chain and the counter seems pretty accurate, at least to within 1m or so
 
petem said:
I don't understand all this stuff. When we had our boat the anchor always righted itself without any gadgets.
Click to expand...

Pete, the modern world is just awfully complicated for we oldies;)
 
For us, it isn't realistic to unman the bow when the anchor is being recovered.
Firstly, we have galvanised chain which piles up into a heap.

But also, it is very useful to have instructions from the fore deck to the flybridge instructing which way to drive the boat to take up the slack neatly without rubbing against the bow roller supports.
Much more important in a big motor boat - sailing yachts with their large keels will follow the line of the chain better.
The ancam is helpful to the guy on the flybridge to see what is happening - particularly when the fore deck crew are washing the mud off the anchor or during the reversing up process to rotate the anchor correctly before its final lift.

Then, it is simply a matter for the fore deck crew to secure the anchor - we tend to use a rope and a carabina attached directly to the anchor as well as the chain stopper.
 
Last edited:
jfm said:
Petem, the delta and I'd guess rocna + ultra self right as the come onto the roller.
Click to expand...

Not in our case. Neither our current Rocna nor previous Delta self right coming into our bow roller and nor did the Bruce fitted to one of our previous boats, an AZ46, which had a hawse pipe. I guess we're doing something wrong:)
 
We use a lifting chain clutch, a bit like a small version of the Oscaluti chain claw, on a dyneema strop (which we also use as the chain lock at anchor as back-up to the snubbers).

Interesting variety of techniques.
 
Deleted User said:
Not in our case. Neither our current Rocna nor previous Delta self right coming into our bow roller and nor did the Bruce fitted to one of our previous boats, an AZ46, which had a hawse pipe. I guess we're doing something wrong:)
Click to expand...
That's the fault of the roller design mike, and possibly too-fast retrieval, not the anchor. It is self evident that any of these anchors upside down on a roller, with the shank somewhat horizontal, is going to be unstable and will self right. But if the cheeks of the main roller don't let it rotate then it wont. See 1.21 of video above where, unrestrained, the thing turns the right way up. but note also that the winch is stopped while it does this - if the operator had kept the winch running and pulled the wider part of the shank onto the roller and in between the roller cheeks, it would have jammed rather than flipped correctly. As Neeves says you have to do this part slowly to let the thing self right.

I don't see that someone on the foredeck can tell you any more than this camera, and a picture = 1000 words. That whole manoeuvre on the video, including pausing to let the anchor self-right, was done from lower helm remotely, using just the camera and chain counter for information and while holding an iPhone to shoot video!

The NZ -made Autoanchor chain counter has a v useful function whereby the winch stops automatically with a bleep and you have to press the "up" button again, when you have wound in all but 1.8m of chain (that's a user-selectable value but I have 1.8m). This alerts the operator just at the point where extra care is needed, in case he has his finger on the up button and is chatting/not concentrating.

Re the question above about someone having to go on the foredeck to secure the anchor, yes that is needed for anything longer than a small plod to the next cove, but the chain stopper is already there automatically as a second device to hold the anchor, thus allowing the crew to go and attach a strop or whatever when convenient. Of course you need someone on foredeck to release it next time, but they can do that 5 mins ahead of time rather than actually while anchoring, thus giving you another useful pair of eyes at the helm when actually anchoring. The Ancam converts crew time on foredeck from 6-7 minutes to 10 seconds, and that's useful in freeing up people to do more useful things, imho.
 
Last edited:
jfm said:
That's the fault of the roller design mike, and possibly too-fast retrieval, not the anchor. It is self evident that any of these anchors upside down on a roller, with the shank somewhat horizontal, is going to be unstable and will self right. But if the cheeks of the main roller don't let it rotate then it wont. See 1.21 of video above where, unrestrained, the thing turns the right way up. but note also that the winch is stopped while it does this - if the operator had kept the winch running and pulled the wider part of the shank onto the roller and in between the roller cheeks, it would have jammed rather than flipped correctly. As Neeves says you have to do this part slowly to let the thing self right.

.
Click to expand...

Yup, been there and done that. Took a blimmin big crowbar to disengage the delta from the guide after one fast and careless retrieval by yours truly...
 
jfm said:
if the cheeks of the main roller don't let it rotate then it wont
Click to expand...
IIRC (but happy to stand corrected by Deleted User, who obviously knows better) I don't think the steel cheeks in his roller are too narrow, but it's rather the groove in the center of the spinning teflon cylinder that "grabs" the anchor shank, impeding the self righting.
And it that is the case, coming to think of it, maybe a different (flat) roller could be a solution...?
 
jfm said:
The Ancam converts crew time on foredeck from 6-7 minutes to 10 seconds, and that's useful in freeing up people to do more useful things, imho.
Click to expand...
LOL, as if those minutes would be critical, while cruising for pleasure!
The quantity of gin tonic I can drink in a day is much more limited by my liver, rather than time available to prepare it..... :cool:
 
But the groove in the roller stops the chain twisting, or rather, stops the twists coming up over the bow roller and impinging on the gypsy.

The twists might be from the vessel turning in the tide/wind - or the anchor hydro-rotating because of the speed of the retrieval and the anchor acting like a propellor.

One solution is to stop retrieval before the anchors gets 'too'' close to the bow roller and let torque and gravity unwind the twists.

Its all about patience!

It worth checking, if you do not use a swivel, to see if when the anchor is just below the bow roller, say 200mm, does the chain have any twist between anchor and gypsy - if there is a twist, just one half turn - then the anchor will never hit the bow roller correctly (or if it does its by chance). If there is a twist, even a half twist - cut one link off and you remove the twist. (Its easier to see it than explain - a picture, or video, is worth more than a etc).
 
That's the fault of the roller design mike, and possibly too-fast retrieval, not the anchor.
Click to expand...
Nope definitely not too fast retrieval. The missus has been doing this for years and much as it pains me to say so, she knows whats she's doing. The issue on my current boat and indeed all of my previous Ferrettis is that the bow roller assembly is a channel and has both top and bottom rollers so if the anchor starts to go into the bow roller assembly the wrong way up it stays the wrong way up. Btw I dont think this is a bad design because the anchor is held firmly in place by the top roller and the channel when stowed which I like

I don't see that someone on the foredeck can tell you any more than this camera, and a picture = 1000 words. That whole manoeuvre on the video, including pausing to let the anchor self-right, was done from lower helm remotely, using just the camera and chain counter for information and while holding an iPhone to shoot video!
Click to expand...
I'm not in any way criticising the AnCam. In fact on your boat where the chain goes through a hawse pipe rather than over a bow roller I'm sure it can be very useful. Also I guess you overspecified the anchor winch on your boat so you are not worried if the winch pulls the boat to the anchor a bit. On my boat I'm not that confident about the standard anchor winch. You can hear it straining when the chain becomes taut and the last thing you want when lifting the anchor is to trip the circuit breaker so I'm reliant on the missus on the foredeck to stop lifting the chain when it gets taut and wait for the boat to settle or point me to move the bow with the engines. The whole idea of her being on the foredeck and operate the winch from there is to ensure that we lift the chain with minimum load on the winch and to direct me to go astern to right the anchor if necessary
 
jfm said:
Petem, the delta and I'd guess rocna + ultra self right as the come onto the roller. Best done gently as neeves says. See 1:25 video below. . However, they won't self right if the anchor comes thru any kind of hawsehole and the distance between the cheeks of the roller isn't as great as the height of the shank, and that is a common enough scenario

Neeves, the NZ made chain counters are very accurate indeed. I've never had mine miss even one revolution of the gypsy in 5 years and two boats worth of use. However I agree it is best to watch the anchor - for that the ancam frees up a crew member to do something useful like fix the gin and tonic.

Click to expand...

Thanks JFM, that's how it was on my little boat. Oddly, as your anchor is coming out of the water, it's as if it's readying itself to stow the right way up. Was that coincidental or does it always do that?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Other threads that may be of interest

F
Non starting outboard
Replies
4
Views
226
spannerman
S
Y
Quick Aries 1000 anchor windless noisy
Replies
0
Views
100
yotter
Y

Share this page

Top