Tailing rope through a Lofran Windlass

[renegade27]

We've replaced hundreds of pounds of chain riding in the bow of our SO35 - lake sailing and hardly a need for so much "security".

We had our yard splice in anchor rode after about 20 feet of chain.

Using our Lofran windlass to retrieve the anchor has become a chore as the rope does not strip well from the tooth gears of the windlass and drop vertically through the guide. We often have to mess around to free the rope from binding in the windlass.

The angle of the "guide" (don't know what it's called) doesn't feed the rope into the chain well and we have to position someone awkwardly to self tail the rope against the direction of the guide to drop the rope into the locker.

I don't know if this explains it well but this has become a real royal pain. Any help is greatly appreciated! ;D

[Don Reaves]

I added enough chain to my anchoring system to avoid this problem. Guess you went the other way.

Don

[rxc]

You are going to hate this first suggestion, but I think you should stop using the windlass. If you are retrieving only 20 ft of chain, you should be able to haul it all up by hand. I didn't install a windlass on my last boat until I shifted to all chain. Admittedly, I was a bit younger, but line is a lot lighter than chain.

Another suggestion would be to take the rode out of the chainwheel and wrap the rope rode around the capstan, instead of the chainwheel. This assumes that you have a capstan on the windlass. If not, then back to my original suggestion. However, it will also require you to figure out how to shift from capstan to chainwheel when the chain gets to the windlass, and this is a problem with Lofrans windlasses, where the chain guide keeps the rode captive.

I solved this problem by cutting away the chain guide, so that I can lift the rode entirely off of the windlass. I did it so that I can use the windlass for a second rode, but it also makes it easier yo handle a rope/chain rode. A hacksaw cuts quickly thru aluminum.

Final suggestion would be to change your rope rode to something that works better in the windlass, or change the windlass to something that is more friendly to a rope rode.

[mkremedy]

renegade27,
I am not sure if your capstan in horizontal of vertical, but our 36i came with a Quick verticla capstan. After a year with 20 feet of chain a 200 feet of rope, I got tired of messing with the rope problems jamming. I switched to all chain and I no longer have any problems wrestling with the windlass and the anchor. I know that's not the answer you wanted to hear.
Good luck
Happy Sailing,

mkremedy

[renegade27]

Yesterday I took the cover off the capstan (? I think that's what its called ? ). It was attached with two bolts together with the chain stripper. Put the stripper and the bolts back in.

I pulled all the chain and rope out of the locker and fed it back in - - at least now we have some room to fiddle with rope's twists and curls and can avoid a hard bind. We can switch from the chain gears to the rope winch *and* we can clear any problems without risk of losing a finger!

Denial??? Yesterday I marked the anchor rode for depth and re-adjusted my docking lines for the lower lake level - AND emptied the boat to be pulled for winter...