Windlass on a 16 ft Angler

A

AK Angler

New member
So, I've dug through the photo albums and haven't found any revealing pictures. Has anybody heard of, or better yet- seen, or even better- actually installed, a windlass on a 16 foot Angler? It looks like there would be enough room below deck if I relocated the bow foam to the ceiling of the v-berth. I have a good supply of 6" thick Insulfoam and a hot wire to cut it to the right shape. I think I could easily cut it to fit up out of the way and attach it up there somehow. Then I would make a rode locker where the foam used to be.

The real question is... Is there enough room on the bow to properly mount the windlass? Here's the one I was looking at...

Any ideas pro or con??

I am really not looking forward to dragging in a 300 feet or longer anchor rode from the depths of Prince William Sound by hand. I also don't really care for the idea of prancing around out on the bow in stormy seas with no bow rail. Neither does my wife... Seems like a windlass would fit the bill.
 
Rod- I don't have a 16 (22 Cruiser instead), but I do have a Quick Aires 500 windlass (same exact set up, 500 watt motor instead of 300) so I'll try to give you my best advice.

The "footprint" of the windlass is given by Marisafe on the catalogue page. The motor below, mounted horizontally and driving the vertical shaft through a worm gear, can be mounted at any of 4 90 degree angles to the vertical shaft. I doubt you'd have a problem fitting the windlass to the boat unless the bow cleat would be in the way and require relocation, but check the dimensions out carefully and be sure you can return any windlass you order if the fit isn't right.

Make the locker a little bigger than that of the 22. 300 feet of 1/2" three strand and 15 feet of chain barely fit into the factory supplied locker.

Which type of anchor do you want to use? A Danforth requires a hinged anchor roller which is rather large, but a Bruce will self-launch with a much smaller anchor roller designed for the Bruce anchor. A plow can be made to self-launch with a smallish anchor roller and an extra roller (Ask Dale, "Fishwisher", on the C-Dog site).

Now the bad news. We've had some problems with the Quick Windlass passing the rope/chain splice and/or picking up the first link of chain. At this point, it would be hard for me to give the Quick Aires a 100% "OK" go-ahead. We've made some modifications to make it work better, but you shouldn't have to do this on a piece of equipment like this. *

Instead, I'd suggest you investigate the Simpson-Lawrence Sprint 400 or 600 for a vertical windlass choice (the motor is mounted on the end of the vertical drive-shaft below, be sure you have the clearance necessary), or the S-L Horizon 400 or 600 for a horizontal motor windlass which would put all the working set-up on top of the deck, which might be a real space saver in the smaller 16. The 600 has slightly larger motor than the 400, plus a chromed brass gypsy instead of a plastic one, a real plus if you going to do some deep anchoring frequently, as the wear factor will come into play on the gypsy, and the larger motor will save you time.

*You might like to talk to Al (Moose) and Mark (2nd Byte), as they have also had experience with the Aires windlass.

Check out all the pictures and discussion in the "Library" under "Anchoring". Also check out the C-Dog site and their archived section.

Also, be sure you've got a good battery or set of batteries for use with the windlass. You'll be pulling 15-40 amps for about 5 minutes at full rode and while the battery(ies) may be rated at 60-90 amp-hours, you'll not want to go to far into the discharge mode. (40 amps x 1/12 hour = slightly less than 4 amp-hours, but none of us like to draw a battery down very far unless we have another one for back-up.)

Hope this starts the discussion! Joe.
 
Rod, I also have the Aires 500 Windless on my 22 Angler. Last year, I experienced the same kind of problems as others mentioned - everything was new then. This year, everything has worked like a charm. I can't explain this but I can state that the Windless sure beats hauling the Anchor up manually all to H___!

Good Luck.
 
Joe,
I was curious as to your comment about a Bruce anchor self-launching. I have an 11 lb. Bruce with the proper bow roller, but it does not self launch. It'd be nice if it did.
Al
 
Al- I know I 've seen Brucce anchors self-launch from non-pivoting roller mounts designed specifically for Bruce anchors. The windline BRM-1 through BRM-4 rollers are designed to hold a Bruce quietly in place with the center of gravity of the anchor in a position so that releasing the chain allows the shank of the anchor to raise up as the center of gravity descends and the anchor as a whole deploys downward. Perhaps the size of the anchor has to be matched to the right anchor roller, as a anchor that is too light or whose shaft is too long for the specific roller may not be able to self-initiate the launch.

Look up this address and look at the description under the BRM-4 anchor roller:

http://www.onlinemarine.com/cgi-local/S ... ?E+scstore

I know this can work, because I've seen it on boats before as well as read about it.

Still working on implementing your solution for the windlass issue. Haven't had the time to bring the boat home from the marina to work on it in a proper place with a full workshop. Thanks for your concern. Joe.
 
Hey guys,
Thanks for the heads up on the Quick Aries problems. I'm gonna do some more looking before I take the plunge. Just seemed like it might be small enough to fit on the small bow. Anybody know of any other small ones I should be looking at?

-Rod
 
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