We finally went for an electric anchor windlass, and now we don't fear deep water anchorages
For years we slaved away on the old Simpson Lawrence manual anchor windlass. Acctually it was so hard to use the manual windlass that we just pulled the chain by hand in less than 50 feet of water. Raising the anchor in deep water was such a task that we always looked for a place to anchor in less than 30 feet if we could find it.
The new Lewmar Pro Series horizontal windlass uses such little D.C. current (35A is typical) that 10 mm^2 (slightly larger than AWG 8) cable was all that was required to wire the unit. Especialy for coastal cruising, when we anchor each night, the electric windlass is great. Now we fear no deep water anchorage.
The windlass came with a gypsy for 1/4" chain, but we also got a gypsy for 6mm chain, as that is what is available in Australia. 65m (213feet) of 6mm chain only weighs about 120 pounds, so it is considerably lighter than the 1/4" high test we used in the past, but should be plenty strong.
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