Anchor winch in a kevlacat 1900 offshore

[Jarrah Jack]

Dont call me stupid!!!! You obviously have some thing to say then have you??? Have you used a anchor winch?

Don't worry about Mister, he used to call himself Kerry on here. Very funny guy if you read some of the archives. Nobody took him too seriously.............

[Smithy]

They're not Hilly in my experience. It fell ok under freefall but wouldn't lay out as you drifted back. It was best to drop it under freefall then pay it out with the down button. It was doing my head in then half the time coils were digging into layers below on the spool. How do you get around that one? When it dug it someone had to go forward and dig it out of the layers below. It was a major drama on our overnighter when we couldn't get the anchor up so it dug in to the layers below under 250hp of power. He didn't have enough chain and has since gone to 8m on a 23' boat and is still having problems. What do you do for a breakaway? He has gone to the biggest cable ties he can find but you pop them every time you retrieve so someone has to go forward. I thought that was one of the points of having a winch, so no-one has to go up the front but with this winch it is turning into a common occurance. Was at Rainbow Beach the other day on this Striper and a bloke came across the Street and had a chat and he was having all sorts of dramas with his mechanically. He loved it but then everyone's opinions on how accurate you anchor might be different. In my line of work, I am getting on shows the size if garden sheds a lot of the time and wrecks of old trawlers and barges so things only 40-50' long at the most. If you are from the near enough is good enough chain of thought maybe they are ok. Stressfree have been really good to him with all the after sales stuff keeping the parts up to him but the list of problems he had was a bit of a worry I reckon.

[FisHard]

As mentioned, each to their own, but for me, the idea of investing another 5-10pc of the capital cost of the boat into an anchor winch doesn't add up. Once you are used to the foam ball on the ring, its easy peasy. Winching a big pick and chain up from 50-100m would have to draw some serious current too? I'm sure they are very convienient though, but I can't see the value.

[hilta1]

I dont seem to be having the issues you are, i use the sarca anchor so ive never needed cable ties, have had it stuck a few times but have been able to get the full anchor back, i did try it with an mooloolaba pick type and didnt like that, with the rope laying bit, it sounds like he may not be motoring up the anchor when retrieving? sounds like the winch may be pulling the boat? not sure but i will be back on the sunsine coast next week to give the boat another workout so will take note of your issues and see if mine does similar,

[hilta1]

Each to there own for sure, i just got sick of having a bin laying in the work area of the boat and just cant be bothered going up the front to tie off etc. as i said before if you have used a system for say 20 years (bouying) i am sure you are competant with that method but would be interesting to see how good you were with that system when you first started using it? i know when i first used the bouy system i lost 2 anchors because i cut the damn rope off with the prop!!!! but as i got used to it you wouldnt go back to pulling an anchor by hand! Now i am realy lazy i find the buoying to be a pain! Pesonaly i spent the money on the winch instead of going over the top with electronics etc. where as some will have big screen this and that etc. pesonel choice realy what you want to spend your money on and why. I just find that the winch works great for meand what i do

[fishing111]

The best way to load these drum winches as advised to me was to pay out all rope for the first time and let the winch pull the boat to get good tension on the drum.This should minimise rope cutting into lower sections on the drum and getting snagged.

[Dean1]

Im not a fan of winches. A float is not hard work. I have a bin on the deck to bleed my fish and the rope/anchor ends up on the floor and back in the anchor well after each trip. Are you dragging it up from the bottom without a retrieval float?? No wonder your over it and thinking about a winch! If i have to do that once in a trip my trip is ruined! lol $50 for a float is a cheap experiment but youl prob need a deckie to show you the ropes ( i think you invited me once cant quite remember) Cheers

[frosti]

sorry to dredge up an old post but i just had a lonestar winch fitted up to my kc1900 after a real dangerous insident with the maxwell deck top winch that the boat came with . i had to get a bulkhead glassed inside the rope locker to mount the winch to , and then winch had to be disasembled to fit through the hatch and then reasembled once in . the rope feeds out the top of the deck via a 22.5 cm hawse pipe
a prick of a job but it looks very neat and works well .