Windless on Yamaha 275

[dwakeman]

Has anyone installed a windless anchor on their Yamaha 275? I’m thinking about doing it and would like to look at detailed pictures of existing installs and know what equipment you had to buy. I searched all the forums, but couldn’t find any examples.

I plan to cut through the front of the hull since it’s just not possible to put one on top of the bow because the anchor locker wouldn’t close, and I would lose the front bow cleat. TIA.

 

[VitaminSea]

Tagging @JETSKIJIMMY, as I recall he mentioned in a post listing the front ladders from a few boats where his dealership installed a Windlass.

 

[VitaminSea]

Was thinking more about this, and if you don’t have already, it might be a good opportunity to run a fresh water line up there to rinse everything off when retrieving. From your location, I realize you probably don’t boat in salt water, but the shower can assist in rinsing off any mud/sand from the rode.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Here is the thread where cycle springs put one on a 275. It’s through the stem as you thought would be the best way to do it.

Thread 'Cycle Springs Windlass modification for 27' Yamahas'

Nov 21, 2020

Anyone else see the windlass mod Cycle Springs (Dealer in FL) on a Yamaha 275?

Wonder if the feedback here is the same as it was on FB....

• Julian
• Replies: 10
• Forum: General Discussion

• 

Before you go any farther my suggestion would be to figure out how much all of that equipment weighs and put that much weight in your anchor locker and see how it affects the boat’s attitude whilst on the water compared to not having that weight in there. You might consider having that weight up there and go run it to see how it affects it as well, and maybe even put your normal people load up there too.

Here is what I did with my boat, I installed an anchor roller and quick cleat. If I need a front bow cleat I run the dock lines through the anchor roller and down inside the lock and use the 8” cleat in there.

Thread 'Anchor Roller with Quick cleat 210 FSH sport'

Mar 18, 2023

So, besides the fact the anchor locker hatch opens the wrong way, using the anchor is, well, a bit of a pain. So my friend who has helped me with the other projects came up with an idea and today was the first mock up. The bow cleat is only used really for anchoring, and the 6” pop up cleat is small for my 3/8” rode, so we decided to remove it and make good use of that spot.

Removed bow cleat:


Bow roller with wooden mock up adapter: The final adapter will be made of an aluminum block, but the wooden piece will serve as a good template.





Top...

• FSH 210 Sport
• Replies: 15
• Forum: General Discussion

• 
• 

I replaced the stock raw water wash down hose with a longer one that reaches the bow so I can rinse off the ground tackle as I pull it back in. You could add a thru hull with a sea cock and either make a dedicated raw water wash down with its own pump / plumbing so you don’t have to use your fresh water supply, or put a diverter valve on the existing fresh water pump inlet so you could select from either raw water or your fresh water tank.

 

[dwakeman]

Here is the thread where cycle springs put one on a 275. It’s through the stem as you thought would be the best way to do it.

Thread 'Cycle Springs Windlass modification for 27' Yamahas'

Nov 21, 2020

Anyone else see the windlass mod Cycle Springs (Dealer in FL) on a Yamaha 275?

Wonder if the feedback here is the same as it was on FB....

• Julian
• Replies: 10
• Forum: General Discussion

• 

Before you go any farther my suggestion would be to figure out how much all of that equipment weighs and put that much weight in your anchor locker and see how it affects the boat’s attitude whilst on the water compared to not having that weight in there. You might consider having that weight up there and go run it to see how it affects it as well, and maybe even put your normal people load up there too.

Here is what I did with my boat, I installed an anchor roller and quick cleat. If I need a front bow cleat I run the dock lines through the anchor roller and down inside the lock and use the 8” cleat in there.

Thread 'Anchor Roller with Quick cleat 210 FSH sport'

Mar 18, 2023

So, besides the fact the anchor locker hatch opens the wrong way, using the anchor is, well, a bit of a pain. So my friend who has helped me with the other projects came up with an idea and today was the first mock up. The bow cleat is only used really for anchoring, and the 6” pop up cleat is small for my 3/8” rode, so we decided to remove it and make good use of that spot.

Removed bow cleat:


Bow roller with wooden mock up adapter: The final adapter will be made of an aluminum block, but the wooden piece will serve as a good template.





Top...

• FSH 210 Sport
• Replies: 15
• Forum: General Discussion

• 
• 

I replaced the stock raw water wash down hose with a longer one that reaches the bow so I can rinse off the ground tackle as I pull it back in. You could add a thru hull with a sea cock and either make a dedicated raw water wash down with its own pump / plumbing so you don’t have to use your fresh water supply, or put a diverter valve on the existing fresh water pump inlet so you could select from either raw water or your fresh water tank.

Thank you. I wonder why when I searched I did not find these posts.

Well, a very nicely done job , I’m not crazy about how low the anchor and wonder if it’s possible to do it with the anchor coming straight out and higher. I’ll have to do some measuring, but at least now I know it’s possible. Good idea to put some weight up there and see how the boats attitude is impacted.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Thank you. I wonder why when I searched I did not find these posts.

Well, a very nicely done job , I’m not crazy about how low the anchor and wonder if it’s possible to do it with the anchor coming straight out and higher. I’ll have to do some measuring, but at least now I know it’s possible. Good idea to put some weight up there and see how the boats attitude is impacted.

Right on.. I put in Windlass in the site search engine and I think it was on the second or third page.

the reason I suggest the weight test is two fold, one, it could submerse you anchor locker drain so you’d have to replace the oem drain fitting with a stainless one and put a plug in it. The second reason is that on my boat as I have put more and more stuff in it the bow has gone down and now if I want to wash down the deck I have to fill two 5 gallon buckets of water and put them on the swim step to help get the water to flow to the deck drain when I’m up in the bow, this could also have an inhibiting effect of water flowing out of the deck drain in the back.

 

[dwakeman]

Right on.. I put in Windlass in the site search engine and I think it was on the second or third page.

the reason I suggest the weight test is two fold, one, it could submerse you anchor locker drain so you’d have to replace the oem drain fitting with a stainless one and put a plug in it. The second reason is that on my boat as I have put more and more stuff in it the bow has gone down and now if I want to wash down the deck I have to fill two 5 gallon buckets of water and put them on the swim step to help get the water to flow to the deck drain when I’m up in the bow, this could also have an inhibiting effect of water flowing out of the deck drain in the back.

Thanks again. I installed a different drain because water was seeping in through the old anchor locker drain and getting into my ski locker. Since I installed this one, I have not had a problem, but I understand what you are saying. I can put a plug in this one if needed. Good point about checking to be sure the boat drains well, as I do the same thing as you when cleaning, with the exception that I installed a pump with a sprayer in the bow to wash down with.

 

[dwakeman]

I also posted this request on the Yamaha 275 group in Facebook and somebody said that Cycle Springs told him that if you cut the hull you void the hull warranty so I may have to rethink the whole thing.

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[FSH 210 Sport]

I also posted this request on the Yamaha 275 group in Facebook and somebody said that Cycle Springs told him that if you cut the hull you void the hull warranty so I may have to rethink the whole thing.

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Makes sense that the hull warranty would be voided if you cut a hole like that in the bow, I would think that boats with a through the stem windlass would be designed and built for that.

The anchor roller is a fraction of what windlass project would cost and makes way easier to deploy and retrieve your anchor since you don’t have to bend over at an awkward angle to keep the rode / chain off of the boat whilst deploying or pulling it in and stowing it in the locker. The quick cleat I have in front of the roller makes it possible for me to deploy the anchor while standing at helm in reverse then catch off the rode in the quick cleat once I’ve paid out the correct amount of rode ( I marked my rode every 25’ and lay out how much I need on the deck before deploy the anchor) and back down on the anchor to set it properly. If I’m just anchoring for a while then I just use the quick cleat, if staying longer or overnight I’ll secure the rode to the 8” cleat in the locker.

 

[dwakeman]

Makes sense that the hull warranty would be voided if you cut a hole like that in the bow, I would think that boats with a through the stem windlass would be designed and built for that.

The anchor roller is a fraction of what windlass project would cost and makes way easier to deploy and retrieve your anchor since you don’t have to bend over at an awkward angle to keep the rode / chain off of the boat whilst deploying or pulling it in and stowing it in the locker. The quick cleat I have in front of the roller makes it possible for me to deploy the anchor while standing at helm in reverse then catch off the rode in the quick cleat once I’ve paid out the correct amount of rode ( I marked my rode every 25’ and lay out how much I need on the deck before deploy the anchor) and back down on the anchor to set it properly. If I’m just anchoring for a while then I just use the quick cleat, if staying longer or overnight I’ll secure the rode to the 8” cleat in the locker.

Thanks. That’s probably what I’ll end up doing. It’s such a pain to pull that heavy anchor with 20’ of 5/8” chain. This bigger boat needs a bigger anchor with more chain. I tried using the one from my 25 foot boat and it would just drag. The new one is also a Danforth, but it’s bigger and designed to fit into this boat.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Thanks. That’s probably what I’ll end up doing. It’s such a pain to pull that heavy anchor with 20’ of 5/8” chain. This bigger boat needs a bigger anchor with more chain. I tried using the one from my 25 foot boat and it would just drag. The new one is also a Danforth, but it’s bigger and designed to fit into this boat.

That chain size seems too big and way too heavy…. 1/4”-5/16” stainless steel chain should be more than sufficient and a lot less weight, you’re a little shy on length as from what I’ve read the rule of thumb is one foot of chain for each foot of hull. I just did some searches, one rule of thumb for chain diameter sizing is one half the diameter of your rode. I originally had 20’ of 3/8” galvanized chain and it was wayyyy too heavy and the galvanized chain marked the gel coat badly, like if it barely touched the gel coat it would leave a mark that took a magic eraser to get off. I switched to 20’ of 5/16” stainless steel chain and that’s much easier to handle and a lot less weight and truth be told I could probably even use 1/4” SS chain and it would be totally fine, weigh less and take up less room.



I also have a swivel on my anchor and the rode is attached to the swivel.



Here’s a chart from West Marie’s website, you can see the three different SS chain sizes, their breaking / working strengths and their weight. The 5/16” is almost half the weight of the 3/8” chain has a breaking strength of 9600# and a working load of 2400#, I seriously doubt the bow cleat is going to hold 2400#. The 1/4” chain is almost 2/3 less weight than the 3/8” and still has a breaking strength of 6280# and a working load of 1570#, and the bow cleat will probably not hold 1570#. Anchor slippage is usually associated with insufficient scope of the rode.




I just realized that you said you have 5/8” chain which is close to 4# a foot…. So your weight savings would be huge.

 

[dwakeman]

That chain size seems too big and way too heavy…. 1/4”-5/16” stainless steel chain should be more than sufficient and a lot less weight, you’re a little shy on length as from what I’ve read the rule of thumb is one foot of chain for each foot of hull. I just did some searches, one rule of thumb for chain diameter sizing is one half the diameter of your rode. I originally had 20’ of 3/8” galvanized chain and it was wayyyy too heavy and the galvanized chain marked the gel coat badly, like if it barely touched the gel coat it would leave a mark that took a magic eraser to get off. I switched to 20’ of 5/16” stainless steel chain and that’s much easier to handle and a lot less weight and truth be told I could probably even use 1/4” SS chain and it would be totally fine, weigh less and take up less room.

View attachment 239667

I also have a swivel on my anchor and the rode is attached to the swivel.

View attachment 239668

Here’s a chart from West Marie’s website, you can see the three different SS chain sizes, their breaking / working strengths and their weight. The 5/16” is almost half the weight of the 3/8” chain has a breaking strength of 9600# and a working load of 2400#, I seriously doubt the bow cleat is going to hold 2400#. The 1/4” chain is almost 2/3 less weight than the 3/8” and still has a breaking strength of 6280# and a working load of 1570#, and the bow cleat will probably not hold 1570#. Anchor slippage is usually associated with insufficient scope of the rode.

View attachment 239669


I just realized that you said you have 5/8” chain which is close to 4# a foot…. So your weight savings would be huge.

View attachment 239671View attachment 239671

Thank you for all the great information. I’ll definitely look into this.