Unusual Anchor Question

[JLR]

I have an anchor and all chain rode. When the windlass pulls up the anchor and it is all the way up all under the pulpit, all is well. However, when I go to re-deploy the anchor, it is balanced such that the windlass feeds out chain but the anchor itself does not drop down from the pulpit. Unless I go from the bridge and give the anchor a nudge, it is balanced in such a way that she will not drop. I do not want to pull the anchor up so that it is NOT tight to the pulpit (i.e. leaving a little slack in the chain) because I do want the anchor moving around under the pulpit underway. Backing down really fast to get it drop does not work well. There has to be a really simple solution to get the anchor to want to drop but I just do not know what it is. Any ideas?

[madhatter1]

I use a hinged davit roller that allows the initial drop to get everything moving. This needs to be a solid quality piece or it can easily be destroyed. They do make a small hinged rocker I have seen for on top of a pulpit where the rode goes through rather than of the end.

[Pascal]

It s about the weight balance of the anchor on the roller unfortunately some anchors and pulpits do not work well together. I ve seen this on some boat and the only way besides modifying the roller is to prelaunch the anchor coming in the anchorage

[JLR]

Still trying to figure this out. As Pascal said, perhaps I need to drop the anchor just a few inches before leaving the dock. My high school physics teacher must be laughing at me now.

[doc g]

Had the same problem on another boat we had and I moved the end roller down two inches. It was painful to drill that thick SS but it worked fine after.....Pat

[Boatsb]

add a weight to the anchor somehow. Its the tip point that needs to be changed. Probably not a huge amount of weight either.Might be a pound or two.

[jim rosenthal]

Suppose you slowly fed the chain out, a little at a time, while watching the anchor from up close to determine the tipping point where it drops- could you add a pad of some kind, either a rubber bumper or add some additional fiberglass for the anchor to rest against when it is fully pulled up? That way, when you started to pay out the chain, the anchor would already be past its tip point and would drop as you want it to.

[JLR]

All good suggestions. Paying the chain out slowly though will not work because the anchor simply will not tip. Move the roller down could work and adding a weight could also work. I guess I will just need to experiment some. Thanks for identifying the "tipping point" as the issue.

[Pascal]

The weight may work, you can probably attach it to the hole for a trip line which most anchors have

[JonHupp]

You guys are all spoiled. My windless (original) only goes up, so somebody always needs to go forward and untie the anchor and give it a nudge. I thought that was part of anchoring? ....