I need some advice on an anchoring system for my 87 F-30.
I have a S/L 510 manual windlass, a 25 lb CQR, 150 feet of 5/16" chain and 200 feet of 1/2" three strand nylon rode on my old boat. Should I move it to the F-30 and call it good?
Or should I look for an electric windlass and a self-launching anchor like a 35 lb Lewmar Delta?
What are others using?
Anyone have a windlass and a self launching anchor on an F-30?
Will the 35 lb Delta fit on and launch from the standard bow roller?
150’ of chain is a lot of weight. That plus 200’ of rode give you 350’, which means that you can anchor in 70’ at 5:1. Since I’m an east coast guy, I don’t know much about west coast anchoring, but is this reasonable? Personally I’d drop 50’ of the chain to lighten the bow.
Also, with that much chain (or even 100’), I’d want an electric windlass.
Finally, I’m not a big fan of CQRs, having owned one for years and having to hand-set it to feel secure. I switched to a Rocna and will never look back.
Deep water and a 13 to 18 foot tidal range with rocky bottoms make the chain pretty popular in the PNW and BC, I rarely pay out beyond the end of my chain, but I could live with 50 feet less I guess.
The Rocna is a pretty good idea, so I’m researching that. Do you think the 15 kg will fit on the F-30 bow roller, I don’t really want to have to modify that. The 25 lb CQR (now 25 years old has never failed me, but is a bit small and is old technology.
I’m shopping Lewmar Profish 1000 windlass since I don’t really have much room in the chain locker for a vertical motor. I know you have a much larger boat, but I’m concerned the windlass will not mix well with the camber spar. I haven’t seen an F-30 with a windlass.
I spoke with Rocna when I bought one for my F30. They said the Rocna 10 would be perfect. The bail on my anchor roller is gone and the Rocna sits there fine. I’ve bungeed the roller to the pulpit. Will be trying to fit some kind of bail along the way. I have an old Lewmar windlass - Concept something or other. the low profile is no prob with the camber spar. You can just loosen the jib sheet and secure the end of the camberspar to the lifeline. Haven’t had a chance to use any of this yet.
I’m hoping to be at the PNW rendezvous, so if you come, you can have a look at my setup.
I guess I should have finished my post out a while ago. But here is what I did:
Lewmar V1 vertical windlass with a wireless remote for operation at the bow and an additional up/down switch for operation at the helm.
(no foot switches at bow)
100 feet of 5/16" HT chain
200 feet of 5/8" braid anchor line
Spade galvanized Model 80 anchor (33 lbs)
On our Mull 32 we have a maxwell RC8 electric winch with 50 feet chain and 225 feet braid rope. Foot controls on foredeck and control at helm, although would prefer hand wireless remote.This has served us well thru the San Juans, Gulf Islands and Desolation Sound. We usually use 3:1 to 5:1 scope and typically anchor in 12 to 30 foot depth (might have to increase for social distancing). We usually just work around the jib rather than take than the time to tie it off.
I wired its relays up to the windlass contactor (a terminal strip helps keep the wires from the foot switches and the wireless relays organized) and powered it via the windlass circuit. In all, it took about 15 minutes to get it working.
For the past two seasons, it has performed flawlessly. If it quits working this year, I would happily buy another (though I doubt I will have to).
Here’s the newly installed windlass, before I added the wireless relays. You can see the foot switches, which are wired up but not yet installed in the deck.
Here’s the relay, installed and wired up. You can also see that there’s now a cleat just below it, which is for the cover to attach to.
And this one is two shots of the cover, which was made my Paul Dennis at Warren River Boatworks. It really ties the whole thing together nicely.
I also remembered that I have this video of it in action.
As far as a wiring schematic, I basically just powered it from the windlass circuit, and then ran wires from the Common and Normally Open terminals on each relay to the terminals for each foot switch on the terminal strip. Very simple. Then, you just press the button on the circuit board to program the remote. I don’t recall exactly how that goes, but the instructions that come with it are pretty clear.
One other thing, in case people are wondering: the range is really impressive. While testing it, I remember that I was able to get several hundred feet away before it started having difficulties.
Paul Dennis is quite thorough and knowledgeable - spoke on the phone with him once and visited his website often. You are lucky to be in same neck of the woods as he. Great looking F 38 too -
I need that remote - anchoring for me is a scramble with me running back and forth from the cockpit to the foredeck foot controls of my windlass - in tight quarters I’m certain I’m hilarious to watch.
Thanks! Yeah, Paul has been an invaluable resource for me, and I’m always looking to pass on whatever I’ve been able to learn from him to folks who may not live so close by (you can probably tell from my other posts).
Glad to hear that I’ve potentially solved a problem for you! When I figured this out it was like the clouds had parted, and I was really excited to tell everyone I knew, but nobody else seemed all that impressed. It still blows my mind that such a capability can be added for under $200.
I actually ended up buying another one and mounting it alongside the first, so that I can also control a little electric horn that I’ve hidden behind the nav lights on my bow pulpit. It’s great for Maine fog.
I’m pretty sure I used 16 gauge actually, since it’s such a short run. Also, I think that’s the same gauge as the wires from the foot switches, so it should be fine.
Be sure to post once it’s installed, I’d like to hear your thoughts!
After getting an email from my marina stating we could come to inspect our boats, I did drive to Good Way today- and installed the Solidremote 202U windlass relay. If I were very tiny it would have taken 15 minutes but as I’m not it took 3 hrs. Once I dropped the v berth upper panel I noticed the windlass had a windlass control box mounted nearby which made wiring in the remote receiver “easy”, size and space notwithstanding. I did download a wiring schematic for the control box, which helped a lot. My receiver had 4 dip switches and I placed 1 on and the rest off. Pressing the remote fob on button A saw windlass spin down as long as button was depressed and button B pressed saw windlass up but I have to press button again to stop - no big deal - I have the dip switches off I’m sure (figures ). Pretty sure all 4 do’s need to be off for just a hold and release mode.
Great idea and $17.00 well spent. I re installed the upper panel and will replace that with cherry in the future.
On the control box- the 3 yellow connectors are windlass up, -bat, down. The middle red cable behind is +bat and had a smaller red wire connected to its post coming from the foot deck switches common, which I spliced into…
Remote fob seems great- easily operated the windlass from my pushpit. Very solid feel
I flipped the 4 dp switches on the receiver to all off and now windlass up and down are both hold and release. Included is my quickie schematic .
Here is the veneered top pane (can’t get the pic flipped!) l - nice colormatching
