Back up anchor winch ?

The boat I run has a pair of hydraulic windlasses which get pressure from the main hydraulic system. It has a pump on each main plus one on the stbd gen. The system runs the bow thruster, windlasses and stab. Forward hydraulics are activated with a solenoid valve.

Loosing the thruster and stabs in most circumstances is no big deal… but loosing the windlass when anchor is down is a problem. One that I have considered on and off but never did anything about.

yesterday we were anchored out here close to home and the solenoid valve failed when I activated the forward hydraulics. No way to get the 200 lbs anchor up. At least I was using the back up anchor and not the primary 400 pounder…

ended up dropping all chain and cutting the safety line. Anchor and chain is in 8’ of water so going back for won’t be a problem once we get the hydraulics repaired

So a back up solution is now on the front burner. What are you guys using with anchors that cannot be raised by hand?

I m thinking about getting a 120 v cable hoist like those use in garages. Capacity is plenty to raise a 400 lbs anchor and chain. It could be attached with a strap to the midship cleat providing about 30’ of distance allowing us to raise the anchor 30’ at a time. We rarely anchor in more than 15-30’ of water.

using the davit on the top deck isn’t really feasible as it would mean having someone go in the water to attach the lifting hook while hovering with the engines. No way.

any ideas?

Don’t think so… I ll check the manual again but if there was you d need a 10’ crank to raise a 400 pounder

I ve pulled anchors up to 65lbs by hand… that’s about as much as I can handle. And I expect this to drop by 2 lbs with every year of aging

Years ago moisture in the foot switch caused my windlass to raise anchor at about 4 am. I heard it all the way from the master. And anchor was at the water line by the time I reached the breaker…

yesterday to make things worst, that windlass freefall didn’t release. We test the main windlass freefall every couple of months but not the back up. Had to bang on the gypsy to get enough slack to pull the chain off. And then… it turned out and of the chain at the bottom of the pile was all rusted up and had turned into a solid ball. Had to bang it with a 5lbs hammer to break it up. Yep… since we never use that small anchor… lesson learned again. From now on it will tested every couple of months

it’s never a single failure but always a chain of them.

Well that valve had failed and was replaced a year ago so that’s twice in lifetime. So far. First time around it happened coming back when the thruster didn’t engage, no big deal.

with hydraulics there can be a dozen of various failures points, hoses and fittings, etc. In the last five years I ve also had 3 pressure gauges failing and leaking… I ve now removed all of the gauges and replaced them with quick disconnects so we can hook up a gauge for troubleshooting. I always carry 2 pails of fluid on board just in case