The answer ISN"T an electric or a bigger windlass
 

On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:38:01 -0600, Paul Cassel
wrote:

Thus, as I said, the limiting factor isn't boat size or anchor
weight but really, sail area.

You need a better sail handling system. Do you have lazy jacks, dutch
men, and/or a stack pack system? I have seen one person easily handle
the mainsail on a 70 footer using all the above (and an electric
halyard winch).

It is also important to have your halyard and jiffy reefing lines run
back to the cockpit with stoppers and winches, halyard on one side,
jiffy reefing on the other.

The answer ISN"T an electric or a bigger windlass
 

On 2008-04-14 19:58:04 -0400, Bloody Horvath said:

35 lbs. is hardly more than a sixteen pound bowling ball in each hand.
If you can't handle that... shape up or ship out.

My sixteen year old nephew can pull up the anchor.

Don't forget the chain. We are a size (or maybe two) big on 30' of
chain, so have an additional 30# to haul up. Mud can weigh a bit, too.

I just imagine most 5'2" 125# women trying to haul that by hand.

Yeah, we can lighten our anchor & chain, but would first get a
windlass, as we sleep better with what we have mounted.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-à-Deux -- Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI trips & tips: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

The answer ISN"T an electric or a bigger windlass
 

"Jere Lull" wrote in message
news:2008041422261877923-jerelull@maccom...
On 2008-04-14 19:58:04 -0400, Bloody Horvath said:

35 lbs. is hardly more than a sixteen pound bowling ball in each hand.
If you can't handle that... shape up or ship out.

My sixteen year old nephew can pull up the anchor.

Don't forget the chain. We are a size (or maybe two) big on 30' of chain,
so have an additional 30# to haul up. Mud can weigh a bit, too.

I just imagine most 5'2" 125# women trying to haul that by hand.

Yeah, we can lighten our anchor & chain, but would first get a windlass,
as we sleep better with what we have mounted.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-à-Deux -- Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI trips & tips: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/



Jere... he doesn't actually sail and he certainly has never had to deal with
an anchor/chain combo. 30 feet of chain ain't nuthin if you have a all-chain
rode.


--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

The answer ISN"T an electric or a bigger windlass
 

On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 01:45:07 GMT, Jere Lull wrote:

On 2008-04-14 13:27:55 -0400, "Wilbur Hubbard"
said:

Because they all ARE! It's a biological fact that the elderly are much
diminished from their mental and physical capacites they embodied in their
prime. It's nothing to be ashamed of but it IS something that should be
taken into consideration. To deny aging equates to diminished capacity is to
deny reality.

But to assert that they are incapable is to deny reality as well.

It's not an either-or, but a "both" solution. My wife can't manhandle
systems on our boat the way I do. She needs winch handles, for
instance, and couldn't easily haul our current anchor and chain by
hand. She's a little girl and never had that sort of strength.

But she can handle a properly set-up 46' cat as easily as our pocket
cruiser once she learns the systems.

All it takes is adapting your systems and techniques to the available skills.

Sometimes the system needed *is* a smaller boat. We have a few people
on our docks who aren't old or particularly incapable, but don't go out
single-handed. They should have smaller boats. (Some got sailing dinks
for knocking around.)

Jere I know a couple sailing a 65 foot sloop. Just the two of them. He
is a retired scientist, I'd guess about 70, and she is a few years
younger. I met them in Phuket and they were on the way to the Med and
then back to the east Coast. No crew, just them.

The boat in the next slip to me is a fifty foot sloop and the couple
that own it sailed it from Seattle.

I knew a chap that was 80, he decided to go to America. Sailed north,
alone, to Japan and turned right. The last I heard from him he had
made Midway Island and the US Navy had a party for him.

Even square riggers with their large crews weren't adverse to making
things easier. There was a "patented" topsail that could be reefed in
two sections. The last of the cargo schooners carrying lumber from
Maine to New York sailed with amazingly small crews by using a
gasoline engine powered windlass to haul the lines.

I can probably go on but the point isn't age it is rigging the boat so
that YOU, or YOURS, can sail it. The much maligned Tristan Jones
sailed a boat with no legs at all.

Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)

The answer ISN"T an electric or a bigger windlass
 

On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:53:44 -0700, "Capt. JG"
wrote:

"Jere Lull" wrote in message
news:2008041422261877923-jerelull@maccom...
On 2008-04-14 19:58:04 -0400, Bloody Horvath said:

35 lbs. is hardly more than a sixteen pound bowling ball in each hand.
If you can't handle that... shape up or ship out.

My sixteen year old nephew can pull up the anchor.

Don't forget the chain. We are a size (or maybe two) big on 30' of chain,
so have an additional 30# to haul up. Mud can weigh a bit, too.

I just imagine most 5'2" 125# women trying to haul that by hand.

Yeah, we can lighten our anchor & chain, but would first get a windlass,
as we sleep better with what we have mounted.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-à-Deux -- Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI trips & tips: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/



Jere... he doesn't actually sail and he certainly has never had to deal with
an anchor/chain combo. 30 feet of chain ain't nuthin if you have a all-chain
rode.

Try 200 ft. of chain.......
Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)

The answer ISN"T an electric or a bigger windlass
 

On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:29:25 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

Try 200 ft. of chain.......

With a 120 lb anchor and a 100 lb mud ball. Even the windlass grunts.

The answer ISN"T an electric or a bigger windlass
 

On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:01:40 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:29:25 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

Try 200 ft. of chain.......

With a 120 lb anchor and a 100 lb mud ball. Even the windlass grunts.

On my next boat I'm going to about 50 - 100 ft. of chain and a nylon
rode. Actually the rope is stronger then the chain and you don't have
to rig a snubber every night.

Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)

The answer ISN"T an electric or a bigger windlass
 

On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:08:51 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

On my next boat I'm going to about 50 - 100 ft. of chain and a nylon
rode. Actually the rope is stronger then the chain and you don't have
to rig a snubber every night.

That will certainly work but all chain has its advantages also:

- less scope required for average conditions

- resulting smaller swing radius

- almost no chance of being cut by an errant prop on an other boat

Nylon also loses a great deal of its original strength when it is wet,
abraded, or as it ages. I regard rigging a snubber as an advantage
because it off-loads the bow pulpit and lowers the effective freeboard
height.

The answer ISN"T an electric or a bigger windlass
 

"Gogarty" wrote in message
...
I agree with all of the above. I recall traying to anchor in ten feet of
water, a sand bottom and a strong current with a Fortress. Took 300 feet
of rode before it would bite. Our primary is a Delta 35. Never fails.
Backup is a Fortress 23 and also a lunch hook a Fortress 11. The 11 will
hold the boat very well if it sets.

Yes, of course it will. But to drop anchor and hold your breath to see if
it will set is no way to go even for a lunch hook

The answer ISN"T an electric or a bigger windlass
 

"Bruce in Bangkok" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:53:44 -0700, "Capt. JG"
wrote:

"Jere Lull" wrote in message
news:2008041422261877923-jerelull@maccom...
On 2008-04-14 19:58:04 -0400, Bloody Horvath said:

35 lbs. is hardly more than a sixteen pound bowling ball in each hand.
If you can't handle that... shape up or ship out.

My sixteen year old nephew can pull up the anchor.

Don't forget the chain. We are a size (or maybe two) big on 30' of
chain,
so have an additional 30# to haul up. Mud can weigh a bit, too.

I just imagine most 5'2" 125# women trying to haul that by hand.

Yeah, we can lighten our anchor & chain, but would first get a windlass,
as we sleep better with what we have mounted.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-à-Deux -- Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI trips & tips: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/



Jere... he doesn't actually sail and he certainly has never had to deal
with
an anchor/chain combo. 30 feet of chain ain't nuthin if you have a
all-chain
rode.

Try 200 ft. of chain.......
Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)


I always get my crew to do this so I don't have to try. LOL

We had a windlass die in the BVIs... pretty calm conditions, anchored in
about 15 ft. I'm glad I wasn't the one doing the hauling to get the anchor
up.


--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com