Legend 40.5 windlass chain jumping fix

[baycloud]

Hey all, has anyone else with a 40.5 had the chain jumping on the windlass? I have the correct size chain, however the lack of any amount of chain drop from the gypsy to the anchor locker when pulling up the anchor meant that there wasn't enough bite on the gypsy to keep the chain in. Letting out the anchor was always fine with no jumping.

Anyway looks like the previous owner tried to add some kind of extra gypsy or something - however my fix is simply a HDPE skid plate below to push the chain up onto the gypsy to give it more bite. I'd like to redo it in marelon in the future.

So far works at the dock. Remains to be seen out at anchor.

See pix

 

[jssailem]

Clever idea. Be sure to rinse down the area and keep it clean of debris that comes up with the chain. Would be a nasty area to clear if you get a jam.

 

[fero]

Not exactly sure but it looks like your windlass is mounted with vertical axis, as far as I know most Legend 40.5’s are mounted with axis horizontally. You may want to read the « Legend 40.5 - Anchor chain stowage » on related subject.

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

Not exactly sure but it looks like your windlass is mounted with vertical axis,

If I'm not mistaken (and don't quote me) but I am "of the slightly biased opinion" that's a horizontal photo looking sideways through the axis of the gypsy possibly making this a horizontal windlass.

@baycloud , is your windlass a horizontal or vertical axis ? Maybe supply a distanced shot of the installation ?

 

[baycloud]

It's stock - the axle is horizontal, so the camera taking the picture is facing starboard and up is up, left in the picture is forward, aft would be towards the right in the picture.

 

[baycloud]

But no one else's chain jumps on the stock 40.5 eh?

I was wondering if maybe the chain was a tad big. For the gypsy, the chain is the correct size - 3/8

 

[jssailem]

Chain size can be a factor. Worth considering.

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

From your picture, I would say there is no way in hell this would work as there is almost "0" drop, but obviously from your description you are using it and it is working.

I'll be very interested to learn how much of a drop off there is to the left of the picture and it's distance from the windlass.

 

[jssailem]

DROP OFF...
Most horizontal winches only have the chain go 90º around the gypsy. Then the chain needs to "drop" FALL at least 12 inches.
Here is what the Lewmar H1 installation manual specifies.

 

[Rich Stidger]

Here is the best view I have of the h40.5 anchor locker. It is hard to judge the pitch of the area under the gypsy but it is certainly less than the idea amount. From top to bottom of the slope is about 4" - my guess, I haven't measured.
Unfortunately the placement of the windlass is pretty well fixed. Short of modifying the cover to allow a vertical windlass, this picture shows the Hunter designed placement.

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

@Rich Stidger , thanks for the excellent picture showing exactly what is happening with the chain. From now on in I am going to stop my bitching about having to sweep the chain from side to side as it piles up in my locker. I'm not even going to complain about my mashed fingers in the gypsy.

This is a photo from my installation of the windlass :

That must be a battle as the locker fills up and whatever drop you did have disappears and you are left with near zero tension on the chain being pulled along the small slope in to the locker.

 

[baycloud]

There is about 0.5" of drop. You're looking at it in my picture. Then the chain slides down at about ~~40 degrees downward and forward.

Keep in mind the chain locker is toward the left in the picture. So the chain bunches up towards the left.
Because the chain is now grabbed through approximately ~~130 degrees, the chain doesn't slip.

Definitely a poor design. Rich is correct, I'd have to re-fiberglass and design the whole area for there to be any chain drop. I have also thought about doing a motorized pulley bringing the chain forward but that's just too much complexity.

This solution does seem to work, however I might not be able to do a real-world test till later this week.

 

[baycloud]

Here I made a quick video in case anyone is interested

 

[fero]

Watched your video, you have way to much chain bunched up too close to the windlass. In my view you’ll have terrible time raising the anchor in real life especially with some wind. I’d suggest again to look at the discussion in the post I mentioned before, even after I stowed half the chain away from the deepest part of the well I have to use a stick to shove the chain away from the windlass towards the end of anchor raising. Indeed not a happy design.

 

[baycloud]

Watched your video, you have way to much chain bunched up too close to the windlass. In my view you’ll have terrible time raising the anchor in real life especially with some wind. I’d suggest again to look at the discussion in the post I mentioned before, even after I stowed half the chain away from the deepest part of the well I have to use a stick to shove the chain away from the windlass towards the end of anchor raising. Indeed not a happy design.

I do plan on engineering a stick

 

[baycloud]

Well, I'm out here at anchor and happy to report that this is a TOTAL fix!

It does need a little coaxing going down - but I am sure that the wear plate will slowly wear down and that will get easier. I already had to push the anchor with a boat hook to get it going anyway. In addition, when raising i still need to keep pushing the chain/rode forward in the anchor locker as you can see in the video (the video shows what happens if you don't) The splice does get caught up as well when dropping anchor in light winds, so I need to give it a little bit of a tug. But for retrieving, it all now finally works flawlessly.

HUGE relief and I would not have been single handing without this working windlass