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I saw a video of a guy with a DE 38 and he was bringing up his anchor. It showed him bringing the chain down through the forward hatch and down into the storage locker directly below the V berth. Any advice on how to do this? I would like to do this myself as have a lot of heavy chain and I'd like to store it further back from the bow.
Thanks
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That sounds good till you stop and think that you will have to bring all the chain out from down below to close the hatch and clear the berth every time you use it. That also means that end of the chain wont be permanently attached to the boat so that your likelihood of losing it overboard is greater. could be done but I don't think I would like it in the long run. You would get a lot of spatter on the berth also bringing a wet chain on board.. have to build something to protect it from that.
It would be a lot easier to just run 2 or 3 inch pvc through a cutout in the bulkhead at the head of the vberth to the lower anchor locker and then glass it back in where it is exposed to the berth.
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Very good idea. Thanks. 3 inch PVC from the chain locker to the v berth might just do the trick. Thsnk
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take lots of pictures 🙂 as this is something I want to do also.
scott
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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2Woe-VoaV4w
This is what I was talking about.
This guy has a DE38 and does quite a few videos of it in action.
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I looked at a couple of his video's 🙂 pretty nice 🙂
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A couple of thoughts on that video.
1: The windlass is mounted in the big flat section of deck. It's got a big backing plate down below, but I've certainly had problems with delamination on Bodhran's foredeck over the years and would seriously reinforce it before I would think of putting a windlass back there.
2: This is a two person solution. It requires that someone be below flaking chain the entire time it's coming in. I used to run my chain down a 3" abs pipe to the locker below the v-berth where the holding tank was originally. I'd have to have someone below flaking or run down myself every 30' to knock the chain down. I normally singlehand, so there was a lot of running back and forth between the v-berth and the foredeck going on. No problem when things are calm, but I often had to get creative when in a crowded/tight/windy anchorage.
3: You have to disconnect the chain from the anchor to use the v-berth. Even worse you'd be flinging mud/seawater around the forecabin. Not pleasant even if you anchor in nice clean sand, but thoroughly disgusting if you're anchored in some thick mangrove mud.
My current setup has all the chain forward in an expanded version of the original chain locker. I ended up adding a second bulkhead 6" back from the first and expanding the original door cutout. It holds 300' of chain no problem and whenever it castles up, I just knock it down with the windlass handle from up on deck. Of course I still am using a manual windlass too. This only worked for me because years ago I replaced the bulkhead between the head and the v-berth that had rotted out. When I did, I moved that bulkhead aft 11", so even with moving the anchor locker bulkhead aft, my bunk is still 5" longer than the original and much wider at the pointy end.
If I were to setup a stock Downeaster, I'd probably run a 3" abs tube down below the bunk like I used to have, but the tube would only run from the bottom of the locker not from deck level. I'd then figure out how much chain would fit in the upper locker. Hopefully it'd be enough for most of my anchoring needs. I'd stow the excess chain down below only needing it when anchoring in high winds or particularly deep anchorages. The lower chain would require flaking as it came in, but it'd be the first chain up when hauling anchor and it'd be no big deal running back and forth to flake it with the anchor still set.
That's my $.02,
Jason
DE32 Bodhran
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Good ideas. Thanks
I think I'll investigate the 3 inch PVC with a two stage chain storage arrangement.
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I have 350 foot of 3/8” chain on my DE 45 and it never self stowed off the windlass, and anyway it overflowed the chain locker. Someone always had to be in the forepeak cabin to sort it out.
I consider it paramount to have all chain self stowing, so I built a new navel pipe out of 2” pvc and rubber collars from Lowes. This comes out of the locker door and leads between the front part of the bunks, to the large compartment below and all the chain now self stows perfectly. Okay, having a pipe in the middle of the twin bed doesn’t look so nice, but we don’t have guests often anyway and they will just have to put up with it. I’m sure they wouldn’t prefer to have to haul the mucky wet chain down below by hand.
See my website at http://www.schooner-britannia.com
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For the DE45 I would probably do something like this also... On the DE38 that space is the main bunk/cabin for us.. If it were a secondary one that the kids used or guests once in a while I would be all about it.
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I have the exact same windlass but I installed it on top of the bowsprit. I'll do a write up about the installation this winter when I have time. Not doing anything fancy with the chain however. Just cut a new hole in the deck (sealing up the edges of the hole with thickened epoxy) to let the chain fall through. It still goes in to the original chain locker. I have 300' total of 3/8 HT but I cut it in to two 150' shots. The primary shot is in the chain locker along with about 250' of double braid, and the rest I stow in four nylon tool bags, under the starboard setee just forward of the Nav station. I can use the old deck pipe to reach down in to the chain locker and knock down the chain with the windlass handle. I was going to fill in the old hole but now I think I'll keep it in place. It's pretty handy not having to go below to knock down the chain.
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Have you guys considered putting a dummy gypsy on an axle underneath the vberth, with the chain running thru the gypsy, and where the gypsy can be spun with a line, then the line run through some blocks back up on deck, to the bow? Then when raising anchor single-handed and dropping the chain down in the locker, presumably yanking on the line would spin the lower gypsy which would pull down the chain into the below-the-vberth locker. In theory.
I have not anchored much but my chain always gets snagged at the triangular hole between the locker and the vberth. Knocking it down doesn't work, in fact if I wait that long for it to back up in the locker, it's more of a hassle to move the chain around to get at the snagged link to allow it to free run again. No amount of beating or shifting around the pile will cause it to unsnag, without getting to those 1 or 2 very bottom links with fingers. So lowering the chain and raking it into the vberth locker has to be in-sync to avoid both the snag or the build-up. This might be a side effect of having larger chain than originally specified.
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no that sounds about right for any size chain in that situation 🙂 its a PITA.... you need someone below feeding chain into the lower chain locker under the vberth as you bring chain in on deck... once that locker has about half the chain in there, you just let the last half fill up the upper chain locker. I really don't know if one person could do it right unless you were at dock and could run below every 20 feet of chain or so and make sure it was feeding right into the lower locker.
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