Small boat big big project!

[hardchines]

New project about to start,but before I start, I wonder if other folks have the same problem I have been having, and maybe have a fix! My little boat has a little anchor rope/chain locker, when retrieving my anchor line the 1/2 line would pile up and stop the windless from working at all, so I switched to chain, now the chain piles up and stops the windless from working. The chain drops out of the windless very far forward in the locker and drops into the the bow VEE and slides down till it starts to pile in the storage area, I get about 30 feet of chain on board before I have to climb into the V bunks and open the locker door so I can shove the pile of chain to the side!

I have a idea/plan but it is labor intensive and would love not to do it, so before I say what my plan is I would love to know what others think would be a good fix ( buy big boat again is not an option)!
Thx in advance for a great idea!

[km1125]

I had a similar problem on my 3607. I had a rope-only windlass. Just under the windlass there's a small 'rode locker' and then there was a hose at the bottom feeding into a larger fiberglassed 'rode locker' below the v-berth bunk. There was a drain in that locker. I thought it would be a good idea to have all the rode go into that fiberglass locker so I extended a hose from it all the way to the winch. Just the slight resistance of that hose would allow the rode to bunch up and make the winch stop working. Someone would have to go below and manually either feed or pull the rode while the winch was working and it would work great.

I was kicking around the idea about putting in some kind of drum to coil up the rode, but that would have been a big project. I should have just cut the hose out that I put in, as it worked great for those shallower anchorages anyways.

Is your rode all chain now?

[hardchines]

yes KM I have all chain but only 75 feet of chain as on this little boat in the mostly protected waters I am in, it is not too often that I need a longer rode, If needed I carry two other anchors one with about 200 feet of nylon twist and a 20 foot heavy chain leader good storm anchor lots of stretch , have not used it yet.

So my plan for a chain pile fix, is again not normal nor have I ever seen anything like it, but I think it will work. I plan to cut lets say a VEE shaped piece of plywood to mount under the windless, but pretty close to the bottom of the windless. The VEE shaped piece of wood will have a strong hinge at the forward most end of the vee, the chain will come down and land on this hinged wood piece and slide back till it piles up as usual, now I could just reach in and keep lifting and lowering the back end of the hinged panel and the chain would fall off from the motion ( I think)! So you may say that is dumb and would save nothing as I would still have to go to the locker and move the damn thing! Well you would be correct, my plan is to mount a substantial windshield wiper motor under the VEE panel , I will mount a roller/small wheel on the output of the gear box that just goes in a circle when the motor runs. Next is to wire the motor to the windless retrieve circuit, now when retrieving the anchor the wheel will lift and lower the hinged panel allowing it to pile then hopefully fall off to the side of the pile/panel due to the panel motion, just may be dumb enough to work!

[hardchines]

Well its time to get back to having a normal life, in my case this will mean getting my Carver ready for for a long trip that I have not been able to do due to covid and shoulder surgery before covid started. So as usual I have many items that need to be addressed,I just unwrapped Venture this week my 26 foot Carver 2667, a 1980 Santa Cruz. I will try to get her ready as soon as possible so I can start my trip as soon as possible , my trip will be from Marlboro NY on the Hudson River to Florida and back, My estimate of trip time would me a minimum of three months but it could be up to 4 months!

[RGrew176]

Hope you have a great time on your trip. Should be quite the journey and adventure.

[Viper]

That sounds like a awesome trip. We'd like to go along with you so don't forget that we like pics here

[km1125]

Sounds like a GREAT summer is planned!!! How much fuel do you think you'll go through? That single diesel has to just sip fuel like a sailboat compared to most powerboats!

[hardchines]

Thank you all, I have allot to get done on Venture and in my life before I start my journey, but looking forward to getting her wet again, last trip was 2018! So KM I don't know about total fuel usage, my basic plan will be to make best time to Florida then start back immediately and hopefully if the weather is looking good I hope to make some museum stops on the way back. I would hope to run 5 days a week in both directions stopping at a marina for weekends, anchoring five nights a week, I like to be on the hook, it makes it easy to get up and go in the morning and stop any time I want to in the evening. I am guessing 8.5 mpg but I am guessing I will be using the AC allot as I am not a hot humid loving guy especially when sleeping !
I have added a 12/120 volt chest refrigerator to supplement my small refrigerator as well as a new larger AC unit, I am told my generator fuel burn should be five hours of half load per gallon, this remains to be seen, I will keep good records. I think a sail boat hull would be more economically driven but I have never seen a 26 foot sailboat I would be comfortable on for 3 or more months!
I have been saving all kinds of links to use on my trip, weather, museums, navigation info etc etc, well I lost all of it in a computer crash recently. If anyone has any pertinent info on cruising to FL please feel free to send it along to me, I will filter it ! morn_star_design@yahoo.com

I hope to start a new thread that I can update along the way and add some photos!

[hardchines]

I have jut set up a thread in the cruising section of this forum the title is "Cruising the ICW NY to Florida on Venture", hope to post some pictures soon and test the uploads, trip should start by end of June.

[Viper]