catching a hockle with winch

[Jcat2010]

First time for everything. Anyone else ever have the winch jam up because the anchor rode formed a hockle and the winch pulled that bundle into the hole below the gypsy - there is no hawse pipe. Jammed in really nice, had to take the gypsy loose and use the wrench to beat the knot back down into the anchor well. Not fun, but finally got it working again. Any suggestions for avoiding this in the future ? The locker seems a bit tight for all that line and chain - and I cut back to only 15' of chain.

 

[PanaSeaAhToo]

Been there....one thought is to periodically unload the rode and be sure it is not twisted when reloaded. Another is to have a dowel or piece of broom handle that you can sneak past the gypsy so you can gently beat the %&#* out of the hockle till it falls back in the locker😀

 

[Jcat2010]

Yes. Pulled it all out and plaited it back in. Also added a piece of dowel to the boat stores. Has to work better than the gypsy wrench did. But gentle wasn't working yesterday.

 

[William Sanborn]

Know the problem well, in fact my used 2011 RT-27 had a double set of decals warning of that very issue. To add to the problem I replaced 95 Ft of 5/8 rode, with 75 ft of 5/16" chain onto the existing 35 ft. So in my anchor well is 110' of 5/16 chain and 110' of 5/8 rode for a total of 220 Ft of ground tackle . I anchor a lot so I built a ladder to go out the front hatch to recover the anchor and use the deck switches with left hand to control the windless and my gloved right hand is inside the chain locker directing the chain away from the hawse pipe. Yes and some times I get a kink, so I back the windless to free the knot , and also have a 1/2" "T" handle handy in case I need to adjust the torque.

 

[NorthernFocus]

Like the previous post I converted to using all chain for 90 percent of my anchoring situations. We anchor every day and usually multiple times per day. The chain tends itself pretty well.

 

[Adam]

Side note, I periodically let out 100% of my rode in 300' of water to make sure it is not twisted.