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This months safety tip comes from the Christmas cruise. Whilst your anchor windlass is designed to raise your anchor, it is an electric motor. If you try and raise your anchor and it is stuck on something or wrapped around your keel due to the boat swinging around there is a risk that the windlass motor will be overloaded. In the best case this will result in a tripped circuit breaker or blown fuse, in the worst case it will burn out the motor and you will have to raise the anchor and chain by hand.
If the anchor windlass starts to labour or stall it is important to stop raising the anchor and investigate the reason. In our case when we tried to raise the anchor in Blackwattle Bay the anchor stubbornly refused to come up. By driving the boat forwards and backwards it eventually came free and we were able to raise the anchor instead of dragging the bow downwards. We were then able to discover the reason for our problem – a 600kg tractor tyre that had obviously fallen off the front of a tug. When we had dropped our anchor it had been lowered into the middle of the tyre, something you could not do even if you had tried and become completely stuck. Fortunately the maritime depot at Blackwattle Bay was close by and they were able to help us get the tyre off the anchor and dispose of it so it will not be a hazard for anyone else. A tribute to our anchor winch that it could drag this monster off the bottom of the harbour.
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