Electric Anchor winch questions

[ranmar850]

I've done a fair bit of research with the view to eventually fitting an electric anchor winch to my Swiftcraft Dominator. I currently use an ezi-lifter anchor clip under a polyform float setup, and have for many years now, not hard work at all. It was easier with the CC I had previously , as you just tied off to the bollard, and, when retrieving, just fed the rope directly into on of the two storage areas directly underfoot. The Dommie, being a cuddy, complicates matters, and to be honest, iussues with that sort of thing are what kept me away from cuddies for a long time, as well as the reduced fishing area compared to a CC. I still reckon anything with any sort of superstructure forrard is an old man's boat, but that's what I am now I have worked around this, and removed the need to access the front deck, by having a 16mm bow rope permanently attached to the front bollard, with an eye spliced in the free end, which is just long enough to not foul the prop . The anchor rope gets tied to to this when you have enough rope out, just not as easy to fine-tune your length as with the CC. This also doubles as a handling rope when launching/retrieving. I often fish alone locally. The rope coils into a fish bin which lives under the outboard well.
I fish two distinctly different areas over the course of a year, with differing requirements. Locally, I am usually anchoring between 8 and 14 fathoms, over either sand or reef, never mud, no strong tides, usually some swell, but never big ones. When I go north in winter, it is usually a bit deeper, pick going over between 12 and 22 fathoms over coral reef or rubble, often with a lot of tide and some swell. The float, in both scenarios, gets clipped on so it it usually 10-15 metres in front of the boat in its finally position. Having the float pre-positioned on the rope also allows you to drop the whole lot quickly if a fast-running fish is rapidly emptying the spool--usually a sailfish which has taken a floating gar meant for a spaniard.
So, the options are either a gypsy-or drum-type reel. So much of the chat on these, I realised, comes from PPB snapper or SA whiting fishermen who are anchoring over mud/rubble/weed/sand bottoms, hence all the use of Sarca's or ploughs, and generally pretty shallow water as well. So not really relevant to my type of fishing, although it would be when I occasionally fish Shark Bay.

So my questions

• Drum type winches need to either be mounted in the well or cabin. The Dommie has a capacious well under the foredeck, but access for mounting inside it would be limited. I have seen them mounted in these boats forward in the cabin, which involves having a hawsepipe running from the foredeck, surely this would bring a lot of water in as you retrieve, messy. Drum winches would also need to have the rope end fixed to the drum, no option of dropping the whole thing if you need to, short of cutting. Also more expensive. Does anyone have any pictures of mounting these on this hull that aren't already on the net? I've seen quite a few.
• Gypsy type--the South Pacific 710 with a stainless gypsy, free fall and the appropriate rope and chain seems to be the choice--many "issues" with these turn out to be incorrect mounting(not enough space below) use of incorrect rope or chain. End does not need to be secured, although I'd have the last 10 metres clearly marked Normally have 110 m of rope , would need to replace the 12mm silver rope with a nylon rope for consistent results. Anyone used on of these on this hull?

Most manufacturers seem to specify the use of a snubber to take the load off the winch when anchored, I certainly wouldn't be climbing out through the foredeck access to do this every time I anchor. Anything else to consider?
Thanks in advance

[LittleSkipper]

Here's a pic of my StressFree FreeFall Winch mounted on a stainless steel plate above my existing anchor well. Works a treat and no more pulling the anchor up by hand or messing around with deploying it by hand.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[scottar]

I have a gypsy type winch at the minute. It won't be replaced with another. The main reasons are the noise on deployment of the chain through the gypsy, the fact you cant fit any chafe protection to the rope - it needs to be sliced directly to the chain and it is not uncommon for the splice to jam on the gypsy as you go from rope to chain. As for not attaching the rope - all it takes is a freefall malfunction and your anchor is gone - personally I would attach it - there is always the knife to let go if you absolutely must.

[ranmar850]

Just curious--did you do a tapered splice between chain and rope?

[scottar]

Yes, exactly as per the instructions provided with the winch. The jamb occurs when the first few links leave the gypsy and drop down in front of the "hawse pipe" due to the length of rope in a small space not having enough weight to pull them through , coupled with trying to make the splice go around a corner at the same time IMO. It doesn't happen every time but it's a PITA when it does. Pretty sure mine is a Maxwell but I'm away from the boat at the moment.

[ranmar850]

This sounds like a common issue, not having enough vertical clearance underneath--research tells me you need at least 600mm clearance below--not sure if this is your starting point when the space is empty or when it has 100m of rope in it. I can see what you are saying--once enough chain gets around it will push the rope down anyway, and the stiffening effect of the long tapered splice wouldn't help either, I guess.

[foghorn]

I have a South Pacific 710 free fall on the boat since 2007, 50 metres of 12mm rope, would have more but no more room in the well, when the anchor is retrieved there is only about 200mm clearance. Never had a problem except to change the on off switch once as I had wore it out with constant use, priced right under a grand, sits on top and no probs.