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Electric Mudweight


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So one of the plus points about this boat is an electric mudweight. However the mudweight appears to be firmly stuck which in itself shouldn't be a problem if we do a bit of backwards and forwards to try to free it when we move off. But although there is plenty of slack in the chain and we can hear the motor, when we press the button it doesn't take up that slack. The question is whether it should or whether this is all likely to work seemlessly when we move off tomorrow. Any ideas?

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Hi Jean,

It sounds like a call to the boatyard for a call out. Basically the motor will pay out the chain and reverse the motor when the other switch is pressed to lift the chain. If the chain is not moving at all then chain will be jammed or there is a gearbox issue.

Regards

Alan 

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Maybe a silly question Jean but just a thought. are you running the engine when you try the electric mud weight.

I know we've always been told to do this and have so I don't know if they work without it

as I say possibly a silly question 

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Thanks for your replies.

Not a silly question at all but yes we've had the engine running when trying it. 

Figured it might mean a call out. We couldn't get onto Ranworth staithe so are moored on the Island. I'm guessing they have ways of getting to places with no land access. 

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Some anchor winches have a 'slipping clutch' by which if the load exceeds the required amount the 'gypsey', the drum over which the chain rides, will slip. The means of up or downing the tension is sometimes a star type ring between the gypsey and the housing over the winch motor. You won't be the first person to have unwittingly loosened the clutch and then been unable to raise the anchor or mudweight. In my experience an easy mistake but one that is easily righted.

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Hmmm the winch is hidden within the boat. We literally just have two buttons at the front on the deck, one labelled up and the other labelled down. If you look at a photo of Sonnet on BB's website you can probably see that the mudweight comes out from one side as opposed to feeding over something central.

Appreciate everyone's thoughts. Hubby even tried to manually lift it but it's not budging. 

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Asked hubby and the reply was yes, he has checked.

Watching a very pretty sunset sky. Been a fabulous day but given that the forecast looks poor for tomorrow it is sounding like we may be sat watching the rain waiting for an engineer. 

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lofrans-royal-manual-windlass-228x228.jp The winch, even if it;s hidden from view, is surely accessible. On this winch the clutch mechanism is the three pronged bath tap looking affair on the right. You might also have a cut out switch that just needs resetting. 

Before hubby ruins his love-life suggest that he breaks the suction of the mudweight by reversing the boat.

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Thank you all again. What a fantastic response from such a lovely group of people always happy to help others out. 

You never know, there may be something that the engineer can talk us through but it sounds like we will have to consult the hire yard in the morning. 

In the meantime here's the sunset I've just been watching. IMG_0259.thumb.JPG.0b2a9c69591452e9f68b224cb86ca4dc.JPG

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13 hours ago, JennyMorgan said:

lofrans-royal-manual-windlass-228x228.jp The winch, even if it;s hidden from view, is surely accessible. On this winch the clutch mechanism is the three pronged bath tap looking affair on the right. You might also have a cut out switch that just needs resetting. 

Before hubby ruins his love-life suggest that he breaks the suction of the mudweight by reversing the boat.

I wouldn't think it's anything as elaborate as that more likely a modified land rover type winch using cable instead of chain, possible a shear pin gone.

Doug.

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Lol the prize would go to Alan for saying that it was probably jammed right from the start. And anyone else who suggested we might have to move to break the suction and haul it up manually. 

I will write more about it in my holiday tale when I'm back. But basically we got ourselves to Ferry Marina then a BB engineer came out. He had to pull the fridge out to get to the workings which were only accessible from a secret place inside the boat! Took him about 90 minutes to get the whole thing apart and sort out four twisted links that were jamming it up. 

All fixed we were on our way about 11am. Heavy showers this morning but hazy and warm here at Womack Water this afternoon. 

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The good thing is stuff can always go wrong, but if it's fixed swiftly and politely then I'm good with that. 

Sounds like they got you back on your trip fairly quickly? Enjoy  

now, you just need get your hubby down the gym!!!!!!:bow

one thing I would say, a lot of these winches are only designed to lift the weight vertically. They aren't designed to haul the boat to the weight and break it out. That's what engines are for. 

Not suggesting you did/do this, but Just a comment as you can burn the motors out. 

I have seen people try this before with mud weights and anchors!!

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We were a bit puzzled as to why no-one else had reported this problem. But it sounds as if we let out more of the chain than perhaps we need have done. And in so doing it got right down to the twisted part and couldn't wind that bit back in. Either way the engineer who came out was very good and knew exactly what he was doing. 

What was very reassuring throughout was to have you lovely folk to give us your ideas. And to be able to share our experience for the benefit of anyone else who might read this. 

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Glad that you are sorted. On most boats that I have been on the weight of the chain has been more than sufficient to prevent twisting. 

On the Waveney last summer a very salubrious Gin Palace had lowered its anchor, a very posh CQR, and laid there for the night. I was fishing and had watched with some fascination. He laid out more chain than he needed to have done and during the night the tide had obviously turned and it had carried the GP over the anchor and it looked like the skeg had picked up the chain as he was by now laying stern on to the tide. I called across the river and suggested caution. On went the anchor winch, the chain went taut and I expect that things went expensive! Let's put it this way, as he went away he was running on only one motor, or so it seemed as only one exhaust port was spewing out water and fumes.

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Must be Ransworth we had mudweight issues, couldn't get on mooring so dropped mw and had a bit of dinner. pressed the button one way nothing the other way noise & chain then stop and we were drifting. steady away all the way to the main run to river and someone said the mw is down. Button had no effect, breaker ok. so there we were on the main exit from Ransworth spinning on a chain JOY. So in reverse and let it take the chain and few more revs and we were moving. Got it back towards the island but it stopped.

Engineer called and had to ask another boat from our yard passing to go collect the engineer for us. A microswitch issue and it was up. Return to drop the engineer off job sorted.

It was the same feeling when your sat at traffic lights and you hope the stop/start fires up the engine on pressing the clutch down.

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