Windlass chain sticking

[Coxy1954]

Hi, my Draco Sterling has a remote windlass but the anchor chain piles up in the locker and causes me to have to manually move the chain about to prevent it from sticking and stopping the motor. Any workaround would be appreciated. Thanks, Jeremy.

 

[wiggy]

I have a length of boom handle to push the pile over, I do stop the windlass whilst doing this.

 

[Quandary]

You will not be surprised to learn that your problem is widespread, almost normal
The solutions
Deeper anchor locker
Higher windlass platform
A cone directly below the chain drop to encourage instability in the pile .
But I think wiggy's broomhandle is the realistic solution.

 

[Neeves]

Older, slightly or increasingly rusty chain seems to tower with great rapidity. If you use your chain more frequently, as you might in the summer, the rust is polished off (by the seabed). But once it starts to rust, if this is the issue, it will rust more and more quickly. The answer is re-galvanising but you can prolong life by wash more frequently with fresh water (salt accelerates corrosion).

Otherwise the broom handle, see post 3.

Jonathan

 

[Jmc1764]

That sounds like the old " Pyramid of Doom " I had same problem and someone on here recommended a cheap plastic cone shaped pick up buoy, I got one on ebay for a tenner and it works great, just secure it under the hole where the chain comes through as low as you can and the chain slips around it and does not pile up in the hole !

 

[Norman_E]

See the picture I posted on this thread Gypsy eating 3 strand rode

With 65 metres of 10mm chain I rarely had to use it all. As it piled up badly I did two things. The first was to get a really stout stick to push over the piles. My stick was actually a hardwood mattock handle. The other thing was that I had a piece of plywood glassed it at the front of the locker and the last 10 to 15 metres or so of chain are piled into it. This achieves two things, firstly there is less chain to pile, and secondly the 10 metres of chain that rarely gets used is not always sitting at bottom of the locker quietly rusting away. Another advantage is that when the chain in that area starts to get used you know you are getting near the end even if the chain marking has worn off.

 

[Tranona]

If you look at photos of the OPs boat the anchor locker is large in area and shallow, perfect for piling up. Cone would not work, simply not enough depth. Really no option but to operate the windlass from up front if there is a lot of chain out, but I can see a reluctance to do that given the type of deck and foredeck on the boat.

 

[RichardS]

If you look at photos of the OPs boat the anchor locker is large in area and shallow, perfect for piling up. Cone would not work, simply not enough depth. Really no option but to operate the windlass from up front if there is a lot of chain out, but I can see a reluctance to do that given the type of deck and foredeck on the boat.

I' mot sure where the photos are?

Richard

 

[Neeves]

Our use of the broom handle trick is now historic - we used G30 8mm HDG chain and it towered, increasingly so as it aged and lost its gal.

The loss of the gal was the prompt that was needed, especially as we only have 50m of chain.

Our chain locker is of large surface area and no depth.

Solution downsize the chain to 6mm (though the main driver was reduce weight)

The 2 drums on the left are our old 50m of 8mm the drums on the right are our new 75m of 6mm.



But it is not only the smaller volume that reduces the problems of towering. Our new chain was galvanised using Thermal Diffusion Galvanising, freely available in the UK, and the galvanised coating (this was I confess an advantage that developed with time) self polishes (and is both harder and a thicker coating than HDG).

This is our TDG chain after about 4 years - I liken it to being a bit like 'black' stainless and flows much more easily.



But who want to downsize chain, you need to use a snubber, or in our case a bridle - horror of horrors, and you lose catenary - disaster in the making! Surely as the chain is cheap it has the strength of spaghetti - actually its cheaper than 8mm G30 and as strong as the chain it replaced.

Embrace new ideas -

no chance this is yachting - who needs new ideas? Grandad swore by catenary (and hemp rope and cotton sails)

Sorry folks - could not resist it.

Jonathan

 

[Tranona]

I' mot sure where the photos are?

Richard

Little bit of googling gets you there dartmouth.boatshed.com/draco_2700_sterling-boat-104573.html

Sorry should have linked earlier, but easy to find.

 

[vyv_cox]

Barry Nielsen, owner of Sailing Holidays, has modified some of his boats by adding deep anchor lockers to avoid piling. Article in YM a couple of years ago.