Anchor Locker and windlass.

[Mark Nooney]

Hi all,
I want to increase my length of anchor chain to 100'. The maxwell windlass VM800, states that a 2' vertical drop is needed after the chain wheel.
Has anyone drilled and added a hawes pipe into the bow? I have the 93 38' Morgan/Catalina CC. Do you have pictures? I will probably need to build a bulkhead also

Not sure if that is an appropriate action for this boat.
Thanks,
MN
SV Telesto

 

[terry_thatcher]

You may be the only member with that later model of Morgan/Catalina. There are lots of posts about Morgan 382/3/4 anchor locker modifications. Some of those may give you some ideas. The 2 feet is typically to allow the anchor chain to self stow--the chain falls over after it goes in and provides room for more chain. My chain does not self stow after most is in; I put an inspection plate in and reach down to knock over the pile. Not great, but it works. Good luck.

 

[Keefer Douglas]

We have 150' of 5/16" chain and 150' of rope in our locker, and have found that the chain stores fine on its own up to about 70' or so (plenty for the 10-15' of water we normally anchor in). Beyond that it needs some help piling up again properly. Posted a bunch on our windlass install and locker reconfiguration in a thread from last year, should be easy to find. Not sure how relevant to the Morgan/Catalina but there for reference fwiw.

 

[John Flanzer]

Hi all,
I want to increase my length of anchor chain to 100'. The maxwell windlass VM800, states that a 2' vertical drop is needed after the chain wheel.
Has anyone drilled and added a hawes pipe into the bow? I have the 93 38' Morgan/Catalina CC. Do you have pictures? I will probably need to build a bulkhead also

Not sure if that is an appropriate action for this boat.
Thanks,
MN
SV Telesto

Hi Mark,

I own the Morgan 384 Morning Star. It was built with a foredeck anchor locker designed for stowing Danforth style anchors and line rode before it became customary to use a plow type anchor on a roller, often with a chain rode. Many owners like the previous owners of Morning Star converted to the latter, which necessitated a pipe to allow the chain to fall and stow in the bilge. Many owners also installed a windlass in the cover of the anchor locker, a less than ideal installation because the windlass should be installed in a structurally intact deck, and not in a much weaker cover.
Many owners have fastened down and sealed the cover, which makes the windlass relatively inaccessible. On Morning Star the cover was fastened down with stainless steel screws into aluminum angle "iron" pieces, which doesn't work because with time the galvanic action of the dissimilar metals will strip the bolts. Additionally, the volume of usable rode locker is decreased by the locker.

I am currently removing the anchor locker and building a solid foredeck, in which I will mount the windlass and anchor stop, appropriately backing blocked. This will resolve the above mentioned negatives, and convert entire forward foc'sle into accessible and usable space. I will seal the locker drain holes in the hull, and no longer have seawater splashing in through these.

Fair Winds,

John F

 

[jimcleary]

John

That sounds like a great project. You are right about have a real stable base for the windlass. Have you given thought to having a secondary anchor available?

Jim

 

[John Flanzer]

John

That sounds like a great project. You are right about have a real stable base for the windlass. Have you given thought to having a secondary anchor available?

Jim

Yes, we have a 44lb delta primary (bower) and she currently has a 35lb delta in the bottom of the sail locker which is not practical, so I plan to probably store an aluminum fortress their as a secondary anchor. Much easy to haul out of the locker and move around on deck. This will have a short chain leader and brait rode.

John

 

[jimcleary]

John

That is what we have. A 45lb Manson Supreme on the roller and a Fortress in the deck locker as a secondary. In the Bahamas the fortress would not dig into the scoured, hard bottom. We kept the on deck locker and placed the windlass on the beefed up deck aft of the locker.

Jim

 

[terry_thatcher]

John F: I assume you removed the anchor locker top shelf. If you anchor chain stows below, have you devised a way to drain the locker of muddy water? It looks too low to have hull drains (they would be under water when heeled). So my muddy wter ends up in the bilge, tho I try to wash the chain as it comes in.

 

[John Flanzer]

John F: I assume you removed the anchor locker top shelf. If you anchor chain stows below, have you devised a way to drain the locker of muddy water? It looks too low to have hull drains (they would be under water when heeled). So my muddy wter ends up in the bilge, tho I try to wash the chain as it comes in.

Terry,

No. You are correct, the chain is below water line (where it's weight should be), so it must drain into the bilge unless a sump pump arrangement was configured. I also just wash the chain as it comes in.

John

 

[John Flanzer]

John

That is what we have. A 45lb Manson Supreme on the roller and a Fortress in the deck locker as a secondary. In the Bahamas the fortress would not dig into the scoured, hard bottom. We kept the on deck locker and placed the windlass on the beefed up deck aft of the locker.

Jim

 

[John Flanzer]

Jim,

That sounds like a very good arrangement. I know that the aluminum's light weight is a real trade off when it comes to digging in, but it does allow a much larger anchor for the same weight, and I am getting a bit long in the tooth to be lugging heavy anchors about on deck. I do like your arrangement but I couldn't do it because I store a dinghy on the foredeck.

John

 

[John Flanzer]

John F: I assume you removed the anchor locker top shelf. If you anchor chain stows below, have you devised a way to drain the locker of muddy water? It looks too low to have hull drains (they would be under water when heeled). So my muddy wter ends up in the bilge, tho I try to wash the chain as it comes in.

 

[bandreini]

Hi all,
I want to increase my length of anchor chain to 100'. The maxwell windlass VM800, states that a 2' vertical drop is needed after the chain wheel.
Has anyone drilled and added a hawes pipe into the bow? I have the 93 38' Morgan/Catalina CC. Do you have pictures? I will probably need to build a bulkhead also

Not sure if that is an appropriate action for this boat.
Thanks,
MN
SV Telesto

Hi Mark - I also have a 1993 Catalina Morgan 381 CC (maybe the second member on the forum...). I also have the Maxwell vm800 windlass and an anchor locker that is too small to hold 150' of chain.

This thread was really good with the info and the latest PDF from John is excellent. Have you progressed with any changes or modifications on your boat specifically at this point? I'm thinking of taking the pipe approach and letting the chain fall into the space below as there seems to be plenty of room. Concerned about mud water going into the bilge, but the current locker simply doesn't work well.

Do you have issues with the chain popping off the chainwheel? We are also looking at what to do about that, but nothing at the moment comes to mind.

Finally, did you manage to install a chain stopper somehow? In my configuration, I really don't see where I can put one as there just isn't enough room, unless somehow, we can install it at the beginning of the bow roller?

Thanks!
Bob
sv Believe

 

[sailorsab]

Hi Mark and Bob. I am new to the group and have a 1994 Catalina/Morgan 38cc. I have the same problem with the anchor locker. I bought it with 150' of chain which is way more than is needed for most of what I do. So when I bought a Fortress for a second anchor, I cut 30' of chain off of my main anchor to shorten the chain to 120'. This helps a lot, but still it doesn't auto feed. I removed the Maxwell to rotate the gypsy stripper so it was pointing forward instead of down and that helped a bit with the derailing, but the chain still bunches on the little shelf below and aft of the Maxwell. I tried adding a ramp for the shelf so it would slide off the shelf but that still didn't help enough. Basically the locker seems to work best for only about 30' of chain. I have a pretty good method of hand feeding the chain, but occasionally it still jumps off the gypsy in the process if I am not careful. This is probably the biggest issue I have with the boat.