anchor winch

[justlovefishing]

after some advice on which way to go with a anchor winch. should i buy a drum winch or a windlass winch. after looking at various types i am unable to decide. which will work best on a 7.5 mt fiberglass boat

[EdBerg]

Hi, I have a South Pacific 1100? vertical gypsy with windlass on my 8mt boat and if I was in the market again I would not buy that type again, instead I would go for a horizontal version and also a model with a free fall mechanism, the vertical version has issues with line twist and having the freefall allows for a much quicker drop without having to use power to lower it.

Can't give you an true opinion on the drum types as I have never used one, however I don't think that I would consider one for my use due to the following factors, rope length is limited to drum capacity, more torque when drum is almost empty and progresively loses torque as the spool fills up although the line retrieval speed should increase when that happens and if the line isn't under too much tension, which if you troll towards where the anchor is on the bottom the line shouldn't have much tension so might not be a factor to worry about.

I think that there are couple of guys here on this forum that have fitted the drum types to their boats and seem happy with them , so they will probably give you their experiences/opinions on them, which will better than mine as I am basing my drum type opinion from a theoretical point of view which may not be accurate in reality. Just my 2 cents worth.

Cheers

[thylacene]

There are a few factors to consider, the depth you want to anchor in and anchor well setup being two key ones.

I have a drum setup, and it holds 120m rope and chain, over 40m it is just not practical. My primary consideration was being able to drop and raise the anchor in 10-20m to get live bait.

I intend to get a reef pick and a couple of hundred metres of rope, throw it in a bucket and use a buoy and ring so we can anchor up on some of the deeper reefs.

Look carefully at your anchor well, I had to use braces fro the bulkhead to the foredeck, there can be a lot of load involved.

From my research, a capstan winch needs a fairly deep anchor well to allow rope to lay correctly on retrieve.

I posted a write up when I fitted ours, has a link to piccies http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/showthread.php?173151-Reef-Runner-Micks-Winch-fitup

If I was to do it again I would go for a free fall winch, while it drops at 30m minute, it can take a bit of maneuvering to stay on the mark to get the right positioning.

If you decide to go with a drum style winch, try to get a reasonable distance between the drum and the roller, it allows the rope to wind on more evenly.

Hope this helps..

Thy

[justlovefishing]

Thanks guys. I defiantly want free fall. Will probably be going with a muir free fall winch. The drum winch seems to be limited to 30-40 mts of water.