Andy, you point to a photo I recognize as one from stlucia boatshed. It is/was advertised as a Parker 335, but clearly it is a 325 as can be seem from many details. I’ve also thought placing a windlass there .. above the deepest part of the chain locker.

My P335 already misses the central cleat as the previous owner had a cable coming out there. This cable is connected to a winch in the starboard aft part of the chain locker. The cable can be used in combination with the spinnaker pole and stabilizing lines to top spreaders to lower the mast without a crane. There is also a hinge beneath the foot of the mast.

Good Morning Everyone,

I thought I would come back with some progress so far on the Windlass. My friend who is a mechanic has been helping me a lot as I am not very gifted in this department. We decided on aft of the anchor well, there is just too much other stuff in the way at the front of it.

Below are some photos

The Windlass is a Lewmar Pro Series Windlass 1000. This was wired into the same power and breaker as my Bowthruster as I am never going to be using both at the same time.

This is a work in progress as we are still figuring things out. Any advice you may have will be very gratefully received.
Went out sailing on Sunday and also got to test it out. It worked very well, but still have a few snags to sort.

1. Fitted a second bow roller to get the anchor offset and away from the jib furler. However, I need one that goes further forward of the boat as the anchor sits very close to the hull. I would prefer one that the anchor sits in and can be locked down ideally. Although this option does allow for the anchor to be removed and put in the anchor well.

2. As you can see, the chain is currently sitting over the top of the lid of the anchor well. I have not figured out how to best deal with this. Other boats I have had, the windlass was down in the well, so it pulled it the chain down on an angle into the well. I am guessing others have figured this out, please can you share your ideas.

Just to follow up on my previous post, I have been giving it more thought.
The only thing I can think of to get the chain going down is a 90 degree old school hawse pipe, then maybe round some sort of pulley inside the locker. But all these additional complexities might just cause more trouble than they are worth.

It may be better to have the convenience of putting the anchor in the locker until needed.

Hi Andy

I don't know about others but I prefer to keep my anchor in the locker anyway; the chain from the windlass fits inside one of those raised lumps on the back edge of the lid. Simply leave the anchor dangling a few inches below the bow roller when raising it, then you can pick it up and wriggle it bewteen the foresstay and the pulpit and put it in the locker (if you have left enough space by keep the chain over to one side...). You do have to keep the lid open when raising it, but you need to anyway so you can flake the chain.

Hope that helps
Peter

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Thank you for your reply Peter.

We tried it properly for the East coast trip to the Airshow and that’s exactly what I did.

I was going to upgrade to a heavier anchor, but decided against it and to be fair the 12kg seemed to hold us fine, although it was fairly calm.

It is very useful that it fits through the gap of the pulpit and can be tucked away when on the move.

I am still looking for a better bow roller, which needs to be offset to work with the Genoa. I should add that as the current roller has no top guide, you do need to be perfectly lined up, otherwise it jumps off the roller. But I assume you can’t have one of those, if you want to remove the anchor and place in the locker.

Hi Andy
Sorry not to have seen your post before our excellent rally. We find lifting the anchor through the narrow slot between the forestay/furling gear and pulpit quite challenging, especially if it is rough, so choose to leave the anchor on the roller when we can. It can then be quickly released if needed in an emergency. Our Lewmar windlass is in much the same place as yours. We had a bracket made up which is bolted through the deck so we could secure the head of the anchor - see picture - to keep it secure whilst sailing. It also helps to keep the point of the anchor off the gel coat just enough. The main problem is the accumulation of the chain immediately below the windlass which has to be thrown forward as we lift the anchor.
We met P325 Blakeney Seal in Lyme Regis and she had the windlass mounted inside the anchor locker but the boat had been modified so the anchor locker was much deeper and took up space in the forepeak shortening the space within the forepeak, so the chain just decended into the depths quite easily. Not sure if this was done at the point of construction or a later modification.
Anne Kell, Arenaria

Good Morning Anne,

Thank you for posting about your setup on Arenaria.
Can I ask you, does your chain go over the top of the locker door, like it does on mine? Or have you devised a way to force the chain down into the anchor locker at the front?

My only concern with using the anchor without the hatch open is if the chain castles, there is not a lot of room to push it forward.

Hi Andy
Once the anchor is secured on the pin there is no force on the chain so we just let a bit out on the windlass so it hangs loose and then drop it into the anchor locker and close the lid over it. I will try and take a photo when we next visit the boat and post it here.

Hi Andy
Once the anchor is secured on the pin there is no force on the chain so we just let a bit out on the windlass so it hangs loose and then drop it into the anchor locker and close the lid over it. I will try and take a photo when we next visit the boat and post it here.

Ah, I understand now. This is a great idea.
Thank you for explaining it :)