Bruce Anchor Knock-Offs

[journey on]

OK, If we're worried by knock offs, please note the Bruce is made in Brazil and the Delta is made in China. Neither inspires confidence in me. I'd be happy to get an American made knock off.

That'd be something new: an American knock off of a Chinese product.

My CQR is cast "made in Scotland", and the Fortress doesn't say "made in China" and neither has let me down.

And I can't compete with that picture. I don't even want to ask.

Boris

[Jazzmanic]

Geez, it looks like we missed you by three weeks.
Capt'n Bill wrote:

Quote:

if you ever find yourselves on the Big Island and are itching to go out on a C-Dory. Drop me a line.

Caryn and I were on the Big Island for last two weeks in March and as I was looking at the calm waters on the Kona side, I was daydreaming about having our C-Dory out on that beautiful turquoise water. We're definitely gonna take you up on your offer the next time we're over there, which could be as soon as next year!

[SeaSpray]

Mark,
Looks like you will have to mount your windless on the dash! Also might be kind of hard to open the front hatch with that thing on deck.

Steve

[Almas Only]

Bill S.

I considered, but rejected, the chain stopper because it doesn’t allow for tensioning of the chain, but merely holds it in place, with some amount of slack. And, I’ve had experience with this stopper, and don’t really like it for use with a windlass. To deploy with a windlass, you would have to pull the stopper pin, and remove the pin and securing plate. That’s two moving parts flying around on the deck, and no matter how you secure them, you can bet that when it really counts, something’s going to go overboard. Then, you’re up that good old creek! And, if they don’t go overboard, you get to reassemble them each time you’ve pulled the anchor. If you try to deploy without removing the pin and plate, the plate tends to get hit by the chain, and bounce back into the locked position. That’s annoying if you’re on the deck with the chain in your hands, but totally defeats the purpose of a windlass if it happens while you’re at the helm.

West sells a chain tensioner (#383540), but there wasn’t enough space to mount and operate it between the windlass and the roller, and I found it fairly hard to release.

I have not had a problem with the pivoting roller while anchoring. In mild conditions, I simply back down to set the anchor, and then leave the roller in the pivoted position, grab the rode between the windlass and roller, feed it through a chock, and secure to the deck cleat. I never allow the windlass to secure the deployed rode overnight. Although many are comfortable doing so, I’m concerned with the conditions which might arise during the night, and also note that using the windlass in this fashion voids the Lewmar warranty. Backing down to set the anchor does load the windlass, but that's about as far as I go.

If I’m expecting bad weather, I’ll use the boat hook to grab the rode at the forward end of the roller, and pull it back to the cleat, leaving slack in the roller side. That way, all force is on the cleat, and none on the roller or windlass. If the forecast is for fairly mild seas, and I'm in the mood, I’ll set the anchor, turn the helm hard to port, give a shot of forward power to pivot the boat, grab the rode with the boat hook, and secure it to one of the stern cleats. You have to be sure not to wrap the rode around the prop, but I’ve never even come close to doing that stunt. And, you’ll find that a stern attachment totally eliminates that annoying sway back and forth you get with a bow attachment.

The slamming which led me to provide for pinning the roller occurred while underway in heavy seas, and might or might not occur in your setup. If it does, pin the roller. Otherwise, don’t worry about it. You might want to go out of your way to test this out, because if you end up with the anchor and roller slamming up and down in heavy seas, and you can’t find calmer water right away, you have a real risk of the whole mess tearing loose, and heading for the bottom with a chunk of fiberglass attached.

As to avoiding having to access the bow, I agree that is desirable. However, since the Lewmar windlass isn’t supposed to be the point of attachment for a deployed anchor, and you need to secure the rode to the deck cleat anyway, I’m not sure how to avoid being on the bow to some extent when preparing to overnight, unless I’m doing a stern hookup. My main concern is what I have to do on the bow, once I’m there. Removing the pin from the roller and removing the snubber rope before deploying, and then securing the rode to a cleat, doesn’t take a whole lot of effort, or put me at any substantial risk. Lowering or raising an anchor by hand is another matter, and avoiding that little chore is the reason why I installed the windlass in the first place.

Let us all know how your installation goes, so we can follow along.