TWL: RE: all chain rode
Hi Brent:
I know nothing about the smells of Florida anchoring. I suspect they
are more pungent than here in the PNW.
All chain rode and a good windlass is a joy to operate. Either from the
pushbutton on the foredeck or from a control the helm, most that I have
seen feed out and in smoothly and effortlessly.
We carry 250 feet of 5/16" chain and we use a short length of garden
hose with nozzle on the foredeck to wash the chain as it comes aboard.
We do not have a separate chain locker drain so any residual moisture
goes down into the forward bilge compartment which has its own automatic
bilge pump. Never had a smell or damp problem. The chain seems to stay
pretty clean (15 years now).
I saw a 30 foot Tollycraft last weekend with a combination chain and
rope system that seems almost amazing (don't know the brand). It was a
vertical type and protruded about 3" above the foredeck. It
automatically switched from chain to rope and back again as the rode was
deployed or retrieved. The whole thing was so compact and the rode ran
about 12" to the bow roller and disappeared into the water. Pretty
neat.
Your wife will love you for it.
Joe Engel
Portland, OR
-----Original Message-----
From: Brent Hodges [mailto:vbhodges@ardmore.com]
I currently have a nylon rode with an almost worthless windlass. I'm
planning on replacing the windlass soon and have been leaning towards
the all chain rode & remote control windlass. (Lofrans Tigress to be
exact)
Joe Engel wrote:
All chain rode and a good windlass is a joy to operate.
I agree with Joe! My last four boats have been all chain. No flopping over
on itself; no smell (but I do wash it as it comes aboard).
You do, however, need to re-galvanize it every quarter century or so...which
can be extended by turning it end-to-end after 15 years.
Okay, I can hear the old salts giving me a hard time: very few shops
re-galvanize anymore...at least not cheap enough to make it worth while. It
seems you need a special shaker thing to keep the links from fusing together
as it dries. Anyway, I bought new for my LRC.
Bob
R C Smith Jr
M/V MARY KATHRYN
Hatteras 58 LRC
Annapolis
Monday, July 28, 2003, 11:53:27 AM, Joe wrote:
I saw a 30 foot Tollycraft last weekend with a combination chain and
rope system that seems almost amazing (don't know the brand). It was a
vertical type and protruded about 3" above the foredeck. It
automatically switched from chain to rope and back again as the rode was
deployed or retrieved. The whole thing was so compact and the rode ran
about 12" to the bow roller and disappeared into the water. Pretty
neat.
I have a Muir horizontal axis winch that will handle both rope and
chain.
It works fine either way, but while on the rope, you must watch the
tension - if the rope gets slack (particularly while lowering the
anchor), the rope may come out of the gypsy - this requires a trip to
the foredeck to place the line back into the gypsy. Also, while
lowering the anchor, a kink in the line can jam the winch and
(possibly) trip the circuit breaker - but generally, I'm happy with
the system so far. (I had a similar Lewmar winch (Horizon 600)
previously, but it failed twice under warrantee - both times while
doing race committee work - so I replaced it with the Muir.)
Re the "Tipping the pile of chain" discussion - on a previous boat, I
had a winch that could not pull chain out of the anchor locker
(Italian make, I think) - I frequently had to go to the foredeck to
start the anchor down, or if there was any form of tangle in the
locker.
--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI Vancouver, B.C., Canada
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver-webpages.com/van-ps