The pivoting anchor roller that you're talking about is a
Simpson-Lawrence Model #66840007 and is the industry standard for that product. It has two pivot positions (sets of matching holes) for controling the roller extension and stowed position of the anchor (and allows for the use of almost any anchor).
This roller drops the center of gravity of the anchor below that of the remaining rode from the windlass, and thus makes the anchor system self-launching.
Works great in my experience, and is so solid with a good tight windlass, it makes having a chain tensioner, anchor lock, or chain stopper unnecessary, although with heavier anchors (over 15 lbs), one may need them in rough seas.
The twist problem is a multi-faceted one.
The boat may turn on the anchor anywhere from 0 to several turns.
The nylon part of the rode can be twisted some, and some of this twist may pass through the windlass into the locker.
When the chain engages the combination rope/chain gypsy, it locks in the chain pockets, and will not ordinarily pass any twist into the locker, instead pushing the twist down the remaining rode toward the anchor.
The chain resists twisting while under tension. To twist it, it must become shorter because of the way the links fit together.
Thus if you stop retrieving the anchor once the anchor is off the bottom and under the bow, the chain twist should reduce itself to a minimum as the chain straightens out, rotating the anchor.
However, this may or may not be the correct amount of twist to align the anchor shaft up for proper passage over the anchor roller and storage.
With an anchor such as a Danforth, there are two ways the shaft can enter the anchor roller and still be OK, as the anchor can be upside down 180 degrees and still be fine.
With a Bruce or Delta Fastset, however, there is only one way the anchor shaft can enter the roller and wind up OK in the stored position.
As has ben mentioned in another thread by Bob Austin (Thataway), anchor rollers are not the easy solution or panacea the manufactuers would have you believe. They may or may not relive twist at anchor or
during hoisting.
What can be done, however, for any anchor, is to
1. Stop for awhile once the anchor lifts off the bottom to allow it to work out any twist possible at that point by rotating.
2. Move the boat in a forward motion at low speed to turn the flukes backward toward the boat (mostly for Bruce and plow anchors like the Fastset).
3. When raising the anchor to the point the shank and/or roller begin to contact the roller initially, pause momentarily to allow the weighted flukes to turn themselves downward from gravity and position the anchor properly for storage.
4. Marking the shaft with colored tape, as Moose (Al) has mentioned, is a great idea that will quickly allow you to check for correct alignment.
5. If the alignment is not correct upon the first attempt, drop the anchor a ways and try again, using boat motion to turn the anchor, even steering the boat around on the anchor if necessary.
The thing you don't want to do is to rush this whole process along!!! Go back and look at each step above and think about how it would complicate the problem to just push the "UP" button and rush though the process! Welcome aboard twist, and now you can shout about it! @#X%*$!+Z#!
No doubt the pivoting anchor roller is a key ingredient in helping making an anchor retrieval system work well, since it allows for some final rotation of the anchor just before storage, more so than fixed rollers.
Joe.
