Anchor Locker Catalina 309

[MED]

I am about to take delivery of a Catalina 309 and have just recently had the chance to have a close look at the 309 (I live in Australia not many around this area). The anchor locker looks very shallow and does not seem deep enough to store a decent anchor rode (say 10 meters of chain (8mm) and 60 meters of nylon rope (14mm)this allows for safe anchoring in 10 meters of water using a ratio of 7:1. I am a single handed sailor and will need to cast and weigh the anchor from the helm using an electric windlass. My choice is a vertical windlass with capstan and with a 1000W motor. The anchor locker is only 500mm deep and windlass manufacturers recommend a minimum fall of 400mm from the top of the stowed anchor rode. Has anyone installed a similar type windlass on a 309 and if so how was the windlass mounted in (or on) the anchor locker and was any modification required to make the anchor locker deeper in order to accommodate the anchor rode. I've attached a photo of the 309 anchor locker of the one that I inspected in Australia and as you will note its a very poor arrangement and requires constant attention at the anchor locker and it seems that a person would continually have to untangle the rode and hand it to the front of the locker as it comes off the gypsy during anchoring operations, so this is out for a single handed sailor. Would appreciate some advice on this.

 

[Gary]

I have a C309 with 35' of chain, 200' of rode and the dealer installed Maxwell horizontal windlass with gypsy. There is ample room in the anchor locker for this arrangement. I wouldn't suggest the vertical windlass as it would require extensive modifications to the Anchor Locker hatch. You may want to consider one of the low profile windlasses that handles rope and chain rode on a single capstan but that would also require modifications to the hatch unless it was mounted aft of the hatch on the deck and you used a pipe to direct the rode into the locker. I too plan to single hand my boat and know that anchoring in a crowd would be a challenge. The horizontal windlass handles chain very well and requires little attention. Handling rope rode on the other hand does require some attention and would not lend itself to remote operation from the cockpit.Gary

 

[Jadedcrew]

Comparison

MED's anchor rode measurements compare to 32' of 5/16" chain, and 200' of 1/2" rope. The problem is that the rope, and chain will not properly store when weighing anchor without intervention (controlling the windlass from the cockpit), and may not feed out when deploying (jump out of the gypsy) with the factory setup.