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Electric Anchor winch


GoingFishing

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Hi all

Thinking of having an electric anchor winch installed and have little (none) knowledge about what to look for in an electric anchor winch.

What brands? What should  i expect to pay and what key considerations should i be looking at.

Boat is a 6.2m plate Yellowfin Boat + Motor and gear approx 1.2T

Edited by GoingFishing
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Hi Sam,

I did my research in 2016-17 so its pretty recent, my rig is also about the same length as yours but twice the weight. 

Everyone has their favourite equipment, so at the risk of  upsetting some, this is what I considered and based my decision on.

Decision 1. Windlass vs Drum winch ?

Windlass - rope feeds through two rotating cones  and ends up in your anchor well.  Its typically what they mount on ocean yachts etc.  Pros: can handle long lengths of rope , easy to install, needs a small hole in your deck for the rope to feed through etc. Cons: most of these winches require you to tie off the rope when at rest, they are a great aid to lifting the anchor, but you need to go upfront and tie the rope off. Also when feeding out, if the rope is twisted it can tend to kink up and then you need to go upfront to untangle the rope. 

Drum - winds rope onto a spool think overhead reel design. Pros: can be fully automated anchoring, the drum locks at rest (mine holds 3T pull), Cons: limited rope/chain capacity based on  the size of the drum, installation location has to accomodate the size of drum you chose to hold the rope capacity you need.

So this led me to consider my typical anchoring requirements:  most of my anchoring will be in estuary conditions (<25m depth) or on the offshore 30-60m flathead, snapper grounds in reasonable weather. (I am not a fan and never have anchored in close to the rock faces - I see many folks do it - and GOOD LUCK to them - no fish is worth it in my opinion).  So ideally I would need 3x rope (for good conditions) which meant  I was looking for 75-180m rope capacity.

Given these were my typical anchoring requirements and I wanted to go s fully automatic as possible I chose a drum winch.  My research indicated I needed a 300mm drum to accomodate anchor rode lengths in this range.

From my research there were 2 stand out drum winch brands: LoneStar marine (LSM) and Stress Free Marine (SFM).  

LSM has a great quality product, fully waterproof, and put out a video on youtube where they conducted a shoot out with all the other winches. Yes they won in terms of repeated lifts, speed of lift etc. It was a great testament to how powerful their product was. SFM came second in that shoot out but released a letter shortly after stating that the shootout had tested the SFM 500W winch against the LSM 1000W winch.  Go figure why LSM did that.

SFM was the original drum winch manufacturer based in SA, also a great quality product and fully waterproof (though they don't polish their s/steel!), They basically had identical drum spool models as LSM. However, SFM has a free fall feature as an option with each drum spool size (note you lose a few meters of rope capacity with that feature). 

It was interesting that at the boatshow, both LSM and SFM had only positive things to say about each other - "great unit, solid stuff etc" ... but no such comments about the other brands. 

Decision 2. To free fall or Not?

Free fall - basically press a button at the helm and the drum spool is released allowing the rope and anchor to drop. So in 40m of water my anchor hits bottom in about 10sec. Without free fall you have to driect drive the drum using the battery to unwind the spool for 60-90sec to let the anchor down. I exchanged messages with a FR who had the SFM 250mm drum without FF  installed for several years and he convinced me that if he had his option again he would go for a bigger drum and free fall every time - as he said - trying to hold position for 60-90sec over a mark is a long time ? 

So in the end, I decided on a  SFM NGmidi50 FreeFall (300mm drum 5yr warranty).

Decision 3: Anchor rode.

Long story short, I spooled my drum winch with  60m 6mm double braid (bs 1200kg) backing,  followed by 70m 8mm nylon rope (bs 1300kg) and then 8m short link chain (covered in a chain sock)... this gave me 130-140m of rode.  This set up puts thicker rope down bottom, and over the length that is most frequently used - ie where you are most likely to need abrasion resistance. The 6mm double braid easily has the strength to hold the boat and is basically a thinner backing giving you the extra length capacity.

I have found this set up great  - I have anchored with a danforth anchor and held position in 70m of water in a 1-1.5m swell in 15- 20kts winds of Barrenjoey.  

I sought FR advice in a post as per below and also received several private messages which  helped me make my decision.  

I did my own installation and posted a video in the Boating section Sept 2017 from memory...my hull is fibreglass so had additional complications to what you would face, but it was a straight forward process.

Also I have sent you a message re cost. 

Cheers

Zoran

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My last boat (Haines signature 505) had a windless anchor which I first thought was overkill having always used an Alderney rig ( float system) to retrieve my anchor in the past.  However, I found it so useful and easy to use it really helped in catching fish. Simply I could drop anchor and push a button to retrieve and reposition the boat if the wind or drift slightly changed.  Some days I was anchoring ten or more times over snapper grounds in 60m.  These days I rarely anchor as it's far from easy to retrieve in a rib.

Any future boat I purchase this will be a priority fit for me even though they are quite costly. Personaly I would get the freefall model next time as slowly lowering mine electronically in deep water could sometimes mean I had drifted a little to far back over my position by the time the anchor reached bottom.

As for rope length, I know the rule of 3/1 is recommended but I never had any problem holding in 60m with the 100m supplied, infact I didn't lay out all the rope at anytime.  The setup came with a heavy quality 10m chain which I believe was part of the reason it held so well. Also if I dropped down to thinner but much stronger racing braid rope I could easely double or more the capacity.

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+1 @JonD  exactly my experience.... have not needed 3/1  when fishing but did so when I anchored overnight in Cowan .... also once you have had a winch... its hard (impossible) to go back !   We lift and shift, or drop and drift without any hesitation. It has completely transformed how we fish and boat.  ... literally  "Stress Free"  hahaha.

Sam, here are the links to some of the videos and material I referenced:

The shoot out ... as I mentioned LSM tested the 500W SFM mini against the 1000W LSM - they have a great product and in my opinion lost a bit of cred by introducing such a discrepancy in their comparison. I actually set out to buy a LSM GX3 but ended up installing the 1400W NGmidi50 (not mini) due to the free fall feature...it has not failed me and has easily straightened out the reef pick prongs several times no probs.

The Stress Free Marine rebuttal:

https://www.stressfreemarine.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Winch-Test-Video-Full-Statement-Stressfree-Marine-Pty-Ltd-1.pdf

The Free Fall tutorial/demo:

And this is my installation video - if you fast forward to 9:46 I show the two anchors (danforth and reefpick) that I use and my simplified system  to change anchor type without tools.

Ok... thats about it.... best of luck with your decision - I know you won't regret it !

Cheers

Zoran

 

Edited by zmk1962
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On 9/21/2018 at 12:48 AM, zmk1962 said:

Hi Sam,

I did my research in 2016-17 so its pretty recent, my rig is also about the same length as yours but twice the weight. 

Everyone has their favourite equipment, so at the risk of  upsetting some, this is what I considered and based my decision on.

Decision 1. Windlass vs Drum winch ?

Windlass - rope feeds through two rotating cones  and ends up in your anchor well.  Its typically what they mount on ocean yachts etc.  Pros: can handle long lengths of rope , easy to install, needs a small hole in your deck for the rope to feed through etc. Cons: most of these winches require you to tie off the rope when at rest, they are a great aid to lifting the anchor, but you need to go upfront and tie the rope off. Also when feeding out, if the rope is twisted it can tend to kink up and then you need to go upfront to untangle the rope. 

Drum - winds rope onto a spool think overhead reel design. Pros: can be fully automated anchoring, the drum locks at rest (mine holds 3T pull), Cons: limited rope/chain capacity based on  the size of the drum, installation location has to accomodate the size of drum you chose to hold the rope capacity you need.

So this led me to consider my typical anchoring requirements:  most of my anchoring will be in estuary conditions (<25m depth) or on the offshore 30-60m flathead, snapper grounds in reasonable weather. (I am not a fan and never have anchored in close to the rock faces - I see many folks do it - and GOOD LUCK to them - no fish is worth it in my opinion).  So ideally I would need 3x rope (for good conditions) which meant  I was looking for 75-180m rope capacity.

Given these were my typical anchoring requirements and I wanted to go s fully automatic as possible I chose a drum winch.  My research indicated I needed a 300mm drum to accomodate anchor rode lengths in this range.

From my research there were 2 stand out drum winch brands: LoneStar marine (LSM) and Stress Free Marine (SFM).  

LSM has a great quality product, fully waterproof, and put out a video on youtube where they conducted a shoot out with all the other winches. Yes they won in terms of repeated lifts, speed of lift etc. It was a great testament to how powerful their product was. SFM came second in that shoot out but released a letter shortly after stating that the shootout had tested the SFM 500W winch against the LSM 1000W winch.  Go figure why LSM did that.

SFM was the original drum winch manufacturer based in SA, also a great quality product and fully waterproof (though they don't polish their s/steel!), They basically had identical drum spool models as LSM. However, SFM has a free fall feature as an option with each drum spool size (note you lose a few meters of rope capacity with that feature). 

It was interesting that at the boatshow, both LSM and SFM had only positive things to say about each other - "great unit, solid stuff etc" ... but no such comments about the other brands. 

Decision 2. To free fall or Not?

Free fall - basically press a button at the helm and the drum spool is released allowing the rope and anchor to drop. So in 40m of water my anchor hits bottom in about 10sec. Without free fall you have to driect drive the drum using the battery to unwind the spool for 60-90sec to let the anchor down. I exchanged messages with a FR who had the SFM 250mm drum without FF  installed for several years and he convinced me that if he had his option again he would go for a bigger drum and free fall every time - as he said - trying to hold position for 60-90sec over a mark is a long time ? 

So in the end, I decided on a  SFM NGmidi50 FreeFall (300mm drum 5yr warranty).

Decision 3: Anchor rode.

Long story short, I spooled my drum winch with  60m 6mm double braid (bs 1200kg) backing,  followed by 70m 8mm nylon rope (bs 1300kg) and then 8m short link chain (covered in a chain sock)... this gave me 130-140m of rode.  This set up puts thicker rope down bottom, and over the length that is most frequently used - ie where you are most likely to need abrasion resistance. The 6mm double braid easily has the strength to hold the boat and is basically a thinner backing giving you the extra length capacity.

I have found this set up great  - I have anchored with a danforth anchor and held position in 70m of water in a 1-1.5m swell in 15- 20kts winds of Barrenjoey.  

I sought FR advice in a post as per below and also received several private messages which  helped me make my decision.  

I did my own installation and posted a video in the Boating section Sept 2017 from memory...my hull is fibreglass so had additional complications to what you would face, but it was a straight forward process.

Also I have sent you a message re cost. 

Cheers

Zoran

Thanks for your very comprehensive and technical response Zoran. Much appreciated.

Some great information there. Im currently running a dual battery setup. Would the anchor winch need its own battery or can i hook it up to my current setup.

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Hi Sam.... the recommendation from SFM was to run with dual batteries BOTH online when using the winch. The winch has a high current draw as expected. So definitely connect to current set up - thats what I have done. 

I have been running with 2 batteries in the ON position.  I also generally tend to start the motor (in idle) when using the winch --- most often I slowly motor forward (in gear) toward the anchor just to take stress off the anchor winch - no point making it work harder than it has to.  But on occasion I have just used the winch and batteries to pull up where I want to. 

I monitor my volt meter and see the drop as the winch engages, but honestly its not as bad as you may think. I feel as if the manufacturers feel compelled to give you the worst scenario. Just use your common sense - I always monitor battery voltage (have a display on the dash)  if your batteries are reading 11V or below --- something is wrong!! ..head home ASAP.

In my case, I went through a phase of overnight stays on the water... which made me decide that if sh*t happens I need a 3rd battery that I can switch in to start the motor if I have to. So I actually have a 3rd battery. 

I know, I know ...  my friends call me a*al .... maybe thats why they're ok coming 40km offshore with me !   

Cheers

Z

 

 

 

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On 9/22/2018 at 10:30 PM, zmk1962 said:

Hi Sam.... the recommendation from SFM was to run with dual batteries BOTH online when using the winch. The winch has a high current draw as expected. So definitely connect to current set up - thats what I have done. 

I have been running with 2 batteries in the ON position.  I also generally tend to start the motor (in idle) when using the winch --- most often I slowly motor forward (in gear) toward the anchor just to take stress off the anchor winch - no point making it work harder than it has to.  But on occasion I have just used the winch and batteries to pull up where I want to. 

I monitor my volt meter and see the drop as the winch engages, but honestly its not as bad as you may think. I feel as if the manufacturers feel compelled to give you the worst scenario. Just use your common sense - I always monitor battery voltage (have a display on the dash)  if your batteries are reading 11V or below --- something is wrong!! ..head home ASAP.

In my case, I went through a phase of overnight stays on the water... which made me decide that if sh*t happens I need a 3rd battery that I can switch in to start the motor if I have to. So I actually have a 3rd battery. 

I know, I know ...  my friends call me a*al .... maybe thats why they're ok coming 40km offshore with me !   

Cheers

Z

 

 

 

Thanks Zoran.

I dont have a voltmeter onboard. Are they hard to fit? Perhaps best discussed over (that very very very long overdue) drink

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