03 270 w/ Simpson-Lawrence Horizon 600 w 4' of chain????

[NO GIN]

So I am not new to the forum and purchased my first Rinker this past September. I took her out several times and loved everything about her. Now I brought her to my home port in the LI Sound where she will spend the rest of her life with us. Different boating scene then where we purchased her from. We will be doing about 90% of our anchoring in 5'-10' of water and for the first time with this boat tested her out this weekend. Long story short, we could not set the anchor. Turns out I have the Horizon 600 windlass with about 70 foot of rode and only 4 foot of chain. I did some research and found that this particular windlass calls for 1/4" G4 ISO American high test chain and 1/2" three-strand. Has anyone changed their chain to the BBB 1/4" or 5/16" with this set-up? I don't want to do any damage to the windlass/gypsy but I can find this chain and from what I have read BBB is stronger.

Thanks Guys!

[NO GIN]

A few months back I found a very knowledgeable and reasonable local salt. I ended up purchasing a really nice used mooring set-up complete with 40' of chain, shackles, lines and a 250 mushroom anchor. He put everything together on the spot and impressed the heck out of me with how well he paid attention to detail.

I spoke with him tonight about my goal for the windlass and he said he has in stock 5/16 BBB windlass chain that has the same exact inside diameter of my current 1/4 G4 chain and just 1/16" wider and longer for the outside diameter. I would think that would be fine for the windlass but I would just be talking out of my rectum really. Does anyone have any input for me on the extra 1/16 OD for my windlass gypsy to handle?

Thanks! 

 

[alswagg]

If you are anchoring in only 10' of water the OEM set up should be fine,  Let out 50' of line minimum for the set.  The other option is to buy longer chain and have the rode braded to the last link.  The 270 can handle 25' of chain and 100' of line.  Al

[NO GIN]

I tried and tried anchoring yesterday with the factory set-up and with the wind and waves I could not. I am going to just go with 20' of chain added to the front but my concern is if this particular windlass can handle the 5/16" BBB chain I am considering being 1/16" OD larger than the 1/4" G4 ISO chain on there now and not do any damage to the windlass.

[NO GIN]

I will put this puppy to bed....

I spoke with a technical rep at Lewmar this morning, which now owns simpson-lawrence, and he said for this particular windlass I must stick with the 1/4" G4 chain. The BBB is just slightly larger but will wear the gypsy down over time causing more headaches than good.