Windlass or capstan? Deep water anchoring question

[salar]

I regularly fish from my mobo and anchor in up to 150 feet of water. I am using nylon rode plus 10 metres of chain. I have 200 metres of nylon rode in the anchor locker, which has a notched hatch so it is easy to flake the rope as it comes in. I usually use the Alderney Ring method to get the anchor up but if the chain slips through the ring at the last minute I end up hauling up the heavy part by hand (10kg anchor plus chain). A conventional anchor windlass would rout the nylon and chain into the locker but I have so much nylon it wouldn't lay without a helping hand, and it would take a long time to pull the amount of rope I use by windlass alone. I often fish single handed by the way so motoring up to the anchor is not an option. Could I use a deck mounted capstan as an occasional assistance and feed the rode or chain into the locker by hand? Does anyone else do this?

 

[prv]

The chain won't go round a capstan drum, so you'd need a windlass with a gypsy. Most of them are designed to feed the chain down through a built-in chute, but I think you can buy some types without it, or some will work if you don't drill the hole in the deck and leave off the cover part of the chute. You'd have to manhandle the rode from rope drum to chain gypsy when you got to the join, but if you're pulling it up by hand now then that shouldn't be a problem. One thing to be aware of is that the chain needs to go round at least 90 degrees of the gypsy, preferably 180. So the best place to mount it is probably just aft of the locker. The rope can come off the capstan drum in any direction and be flaked down by hand, then the chain can run off the gypsy and over the lip of the locker and stow under its own weight. You might need a few bits of thin stainless sheet to prevent chafing of the fibreglass where the chain runs.

Pete

 

[vyv_cox]

You need to be aware that in most circumstances (don't know the type prv is describing) the capstan and gypsy are completely separate devices. It is not possible to switch the same rode from one to another. We have a capstan that we use for hauling in lazy lines or other ropes but the anchor and its chain remain in the gypsy while we are doing it. In your case, hauling in 10 metres of chain and a 10 kg anchor by hand doesn't seem too onerous once all the rope has been brought up. The rope would finish up on deck and feeding it into many anchor lockers would be tedious.

 

[prv]

You need to be aware that in most circumstances (don't know the type prv is describing) the capstan and gypsy are completely separate devices. It is not possible to switch the same rode from one to another.

You're maybe thinking of horizontal-axis windlasses with the gypsy on one side the warping drum on the other?

I'm talking about vertical-axis ones with them stacked on top of each other. The drum normally can be operated separately from the gypsy, but this is irrelevant for the OP.

I'm suggesting not feeding the rode through the built-in navel pipe, so that it can be put on and taken off the windlass as required, like a sheet on a winch or a fisherman's pot-hauler. When hauling rope have it on the drum, when hauling chain, on the gypsy, and yes, it will need to be manually moved from one to the other as I said.

Some windlasses won't work for this because the chain won't lead off anywhere except down the pipe, but there are models out there which don't include a pipe (they expect there to be a separate one just ahead of them on the deck) and others where the walls of the pipe are part of the cover rather than the base casting, so when you remove the cover there's a flat path over the top of the pipe.

hauling in 10 metres of chain and a 10 kg anchor by hand doesn't seem too onerous once all the rope has been brought up.

Remember he's anchored in 50 metres, so he has to lift the whole weight of chain and anchor for most of that distance. Not like a yacht in shallow water only lifting what's between bow and seabed at any one time.

Pete

 

[salar]

Thanks for the responses. Vertical axis was the type of capstan I was thinking of.

 

[vyv_cox]

You're maybe thinking of horizontal-axis windlasses with the gypsy on one side the warping drum on the other?

I'm talking about vertical-axis ones with them stacked on top of each other. The drum normally can be operated separately from the gypsy, but this is irrelevant for the OP.

I'm suggesting not feeding the rode through the built-in navel pipe, so that it can be put on and taken off the windlass as required, like a sheet on a winch or a fisherman's pot-hauler. When hauling rope have it on the drum, when hauling chain, on the gypsy, and yes, it will need to be manually moved from one to the other as I said.

Some windlasses won't work for this because the chain won't lead off anywhere except down the pipe, but there are models out there which don't include a pipe (they expect there to be a separate one just ahead of them on the deck) and others where the walls of the pipe are part of the cover rather than the base casting, so when you remove the cover there's a flat path over the top of the pipe.


Remember he's anchored in 50 metres, so he has to lift the whole weight of chain and anchor for most of that distance. Not like a yacht in shallow water only lifting what's between bow and seabed at any one time.

Pete

I am describing a vertical axis windlass with capstan. On mine, and I suppose most others, the gypsy is disconnected from the capstan by releasing the clutch. If the capstan is used to haul the rope it is not normally possible to then transfer it into the gypsy to haul the 10 metres of chain. I am assuming from his words that he will haul the long length of rope using the capstan, which only leaves the 10 metres of chain plus a light anchor to be hauled by hand.

Although some types of vertical windlass gypsies will haul rope, they don't usually do it very well and hauling very long lengths of rope is likely to be problematic.