Gogarty wrote:

In article ,
says...

snip
Now that I think about it, I remember more times that we have had to
reset than I did originally. They didn't turn up in my memory
because they were really non-events compared to all the times that the
anchor held beautifully without resetting even in fairly violent
stormy conditions.

For instance when we turned into Mile Hammock Bay, an artificial
dredged anchorage (on Marine Corps property - Camp Lejeune NC) at
2:30 pm in the rain in November 2000, there were 3 other boats already
there . Bob decided to anchor on the inner edge of the dredged area
away from the other boats. We had difficulty because we would start
out in 10 feet of water and as he let out the anchor chain, we would
be blown out onto the shallow part and end up in 5 feet of water. Bob
reset the anchor once, and then just decided to put out less scope.
Eight other boats came into the anchorage later, including a trawler
who appeared to have anchored on top of our anchor. But the trawler
left very early so we didn't have to decide what to do about that. We
didn't anchor in that anchorage again because we figured our mileage
so that we didn't have to - mostly because the entrance to the
anchorage was a bit shallow, and Bob hates going aground but also
because there was a cheap marina in Swansboro which we stayed at on
subsequent trips. (Although on the last trip in the spring of 2004
the docks appeared quite deteriorated so I don't know if we would go
there again.)

There! See?

My point is that we evaluated the anchorage and decided we didn't need
to go there again. What would be foolish is if we went back again and
again and had the same trouble all over again each time.

You don't want an electric windlass? Fine. But don't make others out to be
somewhat less than pure if they desire to have one. Best umpteen bucks I ever
spent. And I looked at manual ones. Never looked back.

I didn't try to make someone out as less than pure - I think that was
someone else.

We have a manual windlass (and we have NEVER considered being WITHOUT
a windlass) because we felt that the problems that would come with an
additional battery for it, or additional battery cables to charge the
battery or to get electric power to the windlass from the battery were
more than we wanted to deal with. Bob didn't want to run long
stretches of big electrical wire through the boat. And it isn't
because he didn't know HOW to do it, because he converted an Escort
station wagon to run on batteries and drove it to work for the last 6
years before he retired. So he COULD have done it - he just decided
that he didn't want to.

We chartered a boat like ours and it had an electric windlass, which
he had a chance to use. Our boat came with an electric windlass, but
it was inoperative. We had to chisel it off the bow where it was
rusted in place before we could put the manual one on there.

BTW most of the wiring on the boat had to be replaced with better
quality and more heavy duty wiring.

Perhaps someone can explain to me how it is that every dinky power boat has a
windlass but on sailboats as large as 45 ft and even larger a windlass is not
standard equipment? Our 37 footer and an Endeavour 40 belonging to a friend
aren't even windlass friendly when it comes to adding one. They just were not
designed for after-market windlasses.

Most power boats don't have anything like an adequate anchor rode IMHO
and many of them don't have a windlass. I've seen what my SIL thinks
is adequate for his boat. And he had to install it because the boat
did not come with a windlass. A lot of them don't even have a way to
anchor or at least they don't use an anchor if they have it - they
seem content to sit and fish, just drifting around.

Our friends with a trawler have a set-up where he can't even see the
anchor from the helm and he has to yell at his wife when to let it go.
It is electric though.