Anchor locker Access, IP360 and chain towers.

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1 year 1 week ago #7498 by herraghty
Yes, we too have the dreaded chain tower problem when retrieving chain.  I have almost 300 feet of 3/8" chain and deep retrievals are not something I look forward too.    I have to keep knocking the chain down with a boat hook to prevent chain towers.  So, I thought of building a ramp in there and thought I'd look at this forum for ideas, and there are several excellent ideas.  I did notice that some boaters mentioned having the 1st mate run forward through boat, access the locker, and knock the chain down after every 50' or so of retrieval.  Not ideal but...The only access I seem to have to the chain locker is through the hatch on the foredeck. I'm not a big guy, runners build, and I can't make it down there.  The alternative is major surgery on the V-berth forward bulkhead.   There is no obvious opening.  Am I missing something obvious?  Thanks.   
 

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1 year 1 week ago - 1 year 1 week ago #7500 by zenGator
Replied by zenGator on topic Anchor locker Access, IP360 and chain towers.
Our 349 had the same problem.  We have the cutter rig, so our hawsepipe was too far forward to drop the chain into the middle of the well.  We solved by installing a shelf/ramp made of starboard (for lack of friction and waterproof).  See photo below.  I think it is 1/2" thick.  There is a stainless steel L at the aft end to protect from wear as the anchor is lowered.  It's probably around 16 gauge, but possibly 18ga.  It doesn't need to be super thick, but it has a nice radius at the bend.  It was probably scavenged from an old BBQ grill that a neighbor was junking.

I used florist foam as a template for the "knees" to support  the ramp on the hull side.  These are positioned where the black marks can be seen to the right:  one forward and one aft.  After shaping the foam, I created a matching block out of cedar blocks that I had made by gluing up 1x8 cedar trim.  (This required sanding the wide faces to get a good surface for the glue-up.)  I pretty much eyeballed the shape of the foam template and didn't worry to much with being exact because my installation process used thickened epoxy to bond the knees to the the hull side.  The thickened epoxy filled in any gaps/imperfections.  The trick was to screw the knees onto the ramp first, and then apply the epoxy to the knees and hull, and then set the whole assembly into place to cure.  The centerline support was (aft) the divider for the anchor well as build by the factory and (forward) a simple 1x1 screwed into the side of that piece of 3/4" plywood that sits between the two straps that transfer load from the staysail tack/stay down to the anchor well divider (which is tabbed into the hull).  The 3/4" ply was originally intended as a quick fix to keep the chain from spilling over to the port side well, but  once it was in place (just wedged in--not fastened at all) it never moved.  It was treated heavily with Thompson's Water Seal before being put into place.  If/when it needs to be replaced, I'll secure it better and may even paint it.  For now, though, it's functional and out of the way, so making it pretty is not a high priority.

I'm not sure the rails I added to the ramp are necessary, but they are just a couple of strips of the 1/2" starboard used to make the ramp.

This has been in place for about two years now, and I think we've had only one instance where the chain fouled such that it needed to be manually addressed.  Prior to this, not only would the Admiral need to pause every 15-20' during anchor retrieval to knock the pile down, but during deployment the chain would sometimes get jammed.  We've been very satisfied with this solution. 

We don't have a hawsepipe for the anchor rode (3-strand nylon for now) for the port-side well which is only there as backup for a Fortress that we've not yet needed to deploy.  When we do install a hawsepipe, it will be placed far enough aft that we shouldn't need a shelf to redirect the rode.  Due to the location of the windlass (forward of the staysail) that port side rode will need to be manually attended anyway for feeding into the well.  As it is now, we (would) feed the rode through the hatch for the anchor well.  Not ideal, but we've not needed to set the Fortress yet.


Last edit: 1 year 1 week ago by zenGator.

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10 months 3 weeks ago #7512 by herraghty
Replied by herraghty on topic Anchor locker Access, IP360 and chain towers.
Zengator, how on earth did you get into the anchor locker? The access hatch is sized for toddlers and pulling apart the bulkhead looks like it requires taking a crow bar to the forward bulkhead. Your solution is very elegant but I'm dying to know how you got in there.

Thanks in advance.

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10 months 2 weeks ago #7513 by zenGator
Replied by zenGator on topic Anchor locker Access, IP360 and chain towers.
The access hatch on the 349 is about 18"x12".  I'm a medium build (5'10", 175#) and can get (mostly) in there, although uncomfortable.  I've assumed more extreme/painful boat yoga poses over the years, but there were challenges in getting both arms where they needed to be while laying on the deck, upside-down, backwards, and a little bit inside-out.

"Dying" is a word that came to mind at the time.  And it was NOT summer.
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