Vertical anchor winches & chain splice for chain/rope gypsy

[Jasper]

Hi All,

I've just registered to this forum after reading lost of interesting stuff on it. Like for many of you I guess, my boat job list is growing faster every season. Having worked through the 'keep the boat affload' items and the safety items I got to the section convenience, and that feels good.

On the top of the list is an anchor winch. And here some experience from fellow sailors would be very useful for me.

I'm thinking of a vertical winch with a gypsy that can handle both rope and chain as that would keep the foredeck clear. 8mm G70 chain and 16mm octoplait would be sufficient to keep my boat attached to a Spade20 in conditions that I only hope to read about. Using this anchor and 10 m of chain I would only need a small winch to handle the weight, and that's what I want to keep my catamaran light. But the bottle neck seems to be the available gypsies for most winches. According the specs, a Quick Aleph can handle a combination of 8/16mm.

Any experience with the Quick Aleph winch?

Any suggestions for other winches?

Can 16 mm octoplait be spiced to a 8mm chain?

Does chain splice work with a chain/rope gypsy?

Happy sailing,

Jasper.

[Silkie]

Welcome aboard Jasper. I can't answer any of your questions but do you really need a windlass if you're trying to keep the weight down? Even if you anchor in more than 10m, where you have to lift the lot at one time, I reckon your tackle weighs less than 35kgs.

[Nick]

.
There's an article on splicing anchorplait to chain HERE

14mm anchorplait is usually the biggest size spliced to 8mm chain - 16mm is generally only spliced to 10mm chain, but I don't know whether that is because you can;t splice 16mm to 8mm or because it isn't necessary.

14mm anchorplait has a breaking strain of 4200Kg, 16mm is 5300Kg

8mm chain has a breaking strain of 4400Kg, so 14mm is better suited.

You might also want to read Alain Hylas's Bluemoment article on Anchor Rodes

Welcome to the forums!

[aquaplane]

I'm singing to the same song sheet as Silkie.

My SL winch works well, but the chain don't drop verticaly into the anchor locker so it's easier to pull it up by hand and then worry about getting it below whilst underway. That's on a Westerly without a proper anchor locker. I suppose it depends on how fragile your back is?

Welcome from me too.

[Jasper]

Thanks for warm welcome and the fast responses! Shouldn't you all be sailing instead ?

Currently I'm using 15 m of 10mm chain (2,25kg/m) which together with the 20 kg of the Spade 100 adds up to about 54 kg. I can handle it, but I do feel my back afterwards. If 35 kg is doable by hand then it might be lighter and cheaper indeed to loose some weight than to add a winch. Good point! 8mm Grade 70 chain weights 1,4 kg/m, and an alloy Spade 100 only weights 9 kg. My current anchor/chain would be good for the very few times that I wouldn't trust the light weight option. And even that one I could make lighter by replacing the chain.

It is actually because of this G70 chain that I was wondering about the splice for 8/16mm. 8mm G70 has a breaking load of 7000kg which would be better matched with 16mm octoplait.

The other reason for looking into anchor winches is that it would save me cleaning the foredeck and the side decks after getting the muddy rope and chain on board. A vertical anchor winch could drop the rode directly in the chain locker. I'm not (very) lazzy, but I do some day chartering as well and then I prefer to spend time to keep the guests happy rather than cleaning the deck. But there might be better low tech options to keep the deck clean.

Anyone else around who would know whether it's possible to splice 16mm octoplait to an 8mm chain? Just in case I would like to go for a winch anyway later on?

Happy sailing,

Jasper

[Silkie]

10mm multiplait is normally recommended for 6mm chain but I spliced 12mm (it was cheap) without any difficulty. I don't know if scaling holds good for this but 16:8 is in the same ratio as 12:6. I suspect you'll just have to try it. If it doesn't work you can always make yourself a nice new set of mooring warps.

[Jasper]

Thanks Silky. That gives good hope for splicing 16mm rope to 8mm chain. To be sure I'll first give it a try on a short end of rope and a short piece of chain, before buying a proper length of each. Gives me the opportunity to practise splicing as well. Cheers, Jasper