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Anchor Winches

Paikea

By Paikea
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Paikea JEWFISH

Paikea

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I am fitting an electric anchor winch to my 490C Bar Crusher that is due for delivery in August. The boat has provision to mount a winch in the anchor well. (a post/pics of the boat is in Boating)

The problem is that I would like to fit a Free Fall winch instead of one where you have to drive the anchor up and down however there is a question over the room in the well to fit the Free Fall unit.

Does anyone have a winch that does not have the Free Fall feature? If someone has one I would appreciate some advice on using it, particularly if it is any problem to have to drive the anchor down at a much slower speed than Free Fall. They are not cheap and I don't want to end up with something that is not 100% efficient.

Cheers

Paikea

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Croydon TAILOR

Croydon

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Hi paikea,

I have a micks winch made in south australia fitted to my 560c bar crusher. It is very well made and easy to install. It does not have free fall but I anchor in 60m of water without a drama. Very happy with it. He has introduced a smaller version recently which should fit your anchor well. Cheers dave.

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a boat JEWFISH

a boat

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Some brands of drum winches offer free fall but as you have discovered they are dear. Some other brands offer power out ones that fall almost as fast as free fall without the problems of overrun. These drum winches are very well priced, we stock them and have fitted many and they are good bits of gear with SST motors etc.

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DrownNprawns FLATHEAD

DrownNprawns

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Hi Paikea I went through the same as you free fall or not the big question.......... in the end went with drive up and down as most free falls for my boat needed you to be at the winch to flick the switch to engage the free fall, then had to reengage to lock anchor down (phew to much hard work for me ) so I went for the non free fall version now I don't leave the helm :) and no mess deploy and retrieval :sun:

BTW congrats on the new boat

DavidA

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Paikea JEWFISH

Paikea

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Some brands of drum winches offer free fall but as you have discovered they are dear. Some other brands offer power out ones that fall almost as fast as free fall without the problems of overrun. These drum winches are very well priced, we stock them and have fitted many and they are good bits of gear with SST motors etc.

Thanks Huey, Unfortunately the contract for the boat has the Brand of the winch nominated hence I am bound to stay with that. On balance I think that I will stay with the drive up/down model, the spec nominates 90M/Minute which I guess is not too bad.

Hi Paikea I went through the same as you free fall or not the big question.......... in the end went with drive up and down as most free falls for my boat needed you to be at the winch to flick the switch to engage the free fall, then had to reengage to lock anchor down (phew to much hard work for me ) so I went for the non free fall version now I don't leave the helm :) and no mess deploy and retrieval :sun:

BTW congrats on the new boat

DavidA

Thank you David, its a bugger having to wait until August to get the boat but looking forward to it. The Brand of winch that is included in the order has dash mounted controls so no sweat.

Hi paikea,

I have a micks winch made in south australia fitted to my 560c bar crusher. It is very well made and easy to install. It does not have free fall but I anchor in 60m of water without a drama. Very happy with it. He has introduced a smaller version recently which should fit your anchor well. Cheers dave.

Hi David, I had a look at the website for Mick's winches, they look pretty good. Thank you for sharing your experience of using your winch in 60 M, I cannot see too many instances when I will want to anchor deepr than that so should be fine.

Cheers all

Paikea

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a boat JEWFISH

a boat

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OK, but if i was buying a new boat and wanted another brand of anything, say an anchor winch, fitted you would think it would be easy to change. As for the fall rate, it will not be 90M/minute, more like 40M/minute or you are getting metres confused with feet.

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Paikea JEWFISH

Paikea

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OK, but if i was buying a new boat and wanted another brand of anything, say an anchor winch, fitted you would think it would be easy to change. As for the fall rate, it will not be 90M/minute, more like 40M/minute or you are getting metres confused with feet.

Yes you are right Huey, I read feet and quoted meters. Sorry all. I checked again and found the following:

"The standard (name deleted to comply with the site rules)is power up and power down and will lower and retrieve at 80 - 90 feet/minute whereas the oo Series is built to the same quality, has the power up and power down feature as well as the fully engineered freefall mechanism, all executed with the flick of a switch from the helm. The winch will free-fall at up to 600 feet/minute which is a real advantage when you fish in depths greater than 20 meters."

I was actually more concerned at the Sarca type anchors deploying correctly when lowered at a slower speed. Videos of winch operations all seem to stress the anchors gliding down at an angle when free spooled which apparently does not happen at the slower speed.

The other thing that has concerned me is the noise, I have always kept my anchors and rope in a milk crate in the cockpit so that I can ensure that there is minimum noise when lowering the anchor over the side. I have a rope with a carabiner on the end attached to the bow cleat. When not in use the carabiner end is clipped onto something like the base of the Targa top. When the anchor has set I simply tie a loop in the anchor line, clip the carabiner onto the loop and pay the line out. The boat is then moored off the bow cleat whilst the rest of the anchor line stays in the milk crate. Then all I have to do is pull the anchor line back in, unclip the carabiner and pull the anchor rope/anchor back into the crate. This way I never had to climb through any hatches or walk around the side of the boat. Much easier and safer.

The downside of course is that you still have to manually pull the anchor in, even when using a recovery ball it still takes some effort which gets harder as you get older. Hence my change to a winch.

Anyone have any comments on the noise factor?

Cheers

Paikea

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Croydon TAILOR

Croydon

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Hi paikea,

The only noisy part of the operating is the chain travelling over the bowsprit. If you have a look at the website of the winch manufacturer I'm sure you are using they make a mesh type chain guard which substantially reduces the chain rattle.

I have used a sarchor anchor since I installed the anchor winch a couple of years ago and have had no problems deploying it. They hold extremely well and are easily retrieved from within the cabin using the up/down switch.

The drum winch is one of the best things I have ever installed in the boat. Good luck with your new purchase. Cheers. ..... dave

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Paikea JEWFISH

Paikea

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I'm sorry. Did I make it sound like I was on the fence??

No Mate, you clearly have a vested interest in the anchor being pulled up and down by pushing a button. I will have the button installed on your side of the dashboard. How's That!

Cheers

Paikea

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