ive got a lewmar pro1000 and its great but if you have not got enough drop for the winch you will have lots of problems! best read up the specs and check your dimentions!

I had a Lewmar anchor winch on my old boat and put one on my new Haines recently. The winches get a lot of use and I've never had an issue!

Certainly makes life easy for the decky  

I like the look of the Lewmar too. The Stressfree looks a little archaic for my liking but I know from past experiences sometimes simple is best haha. Is there a specific rope you use with yours to stop the rope bunching up and getting in knots Ryan? I've read some of the previous threads on this topic and silver rope sounds like the go.

Silver rope is a very basic rope and ideal for manual anchor sytems not the best for winches!

I've owned Lewmar winches now for over 10 years and use them alot.......i can recommend them fore sure!!!

The best rope/more expensive type isnt always the best..........I've used the most upmarket stuff ie 8 strand on my old boat but prefer the Lewman chain & rope package you can buy!

The rope is 3 strand and stiffer so it goes through the winch no worries but eliminates tangles. I've had one mini tangle on my new boat and that was easy undo...........where as the 8 strand was more of an issue with tangles and the 3 strand has better abbrasion resistence!

They sound like the go to me mate. I can't wait to not have to manually pull the anchor up anymore haha.

i use a lemar for cray pots and anchor the one winch gets a lot of work and it has not let me down  (fingers crossed) after saying that

 I've got the profish 1000 too it's great,just sometimes. Gets stuck when releasing the anchor not sure on the rope and stuff yet will look into it !

I have a lemar on my 7 meter ali and never had an issue.  I think the main thing is the depth of the anchor well so the rope has a decent drop.  My mate has an anchor winch on his boat and only a very shallow well.  His was a pain because you had to get up the front and lay the rope in the well as the winch pulled it in other wise it wouldn;t drop down..

I have the lewmar on mine and it is good. Must say that I do miss watching the missus pulling up the anchor though if you know what I mean hahahaha.

Cheers

Mullows

Just been looking at the Lewmar web site, they have a PDF manual on installation. Looks like you need 300mm from the top of the deck where the winch is mounted to the top of the rope/chain pile. Also if I read it right, you need a special tool to release the winch for it to free fall. So you still have to be at the winch when setting the anchor.

There are 2 types i think , mine the profish releases to freefall. The standard one does not freefall unless you release it manually

we had the freefall function on the birdie but we didnt like it it the rope comes out very fast and tended to get caught on its self! the normal head is what i use now it just means you need to hold your finger on the down button whilst dropping. much better in my opinion!

 I had my concerns about the free fall version with the rope getting tangled etc. but I would rather hold the button down for more control. I very rarely fish deeper than 40 metres so it's not too much of an issue for me at the moment and I'm getting the second battery fitted to deal with the extra power draw.

The Lewmars sound like they've held up well over time for a lot of you guys and they look the goods too. 

Pare there any dealers in particular you would recommend to supply and fit one?

Cheers.

 **Are there any dealers in particular you would recommend to fit one**

Damn iPad spellcheck!

Do you really have the 30cm of fall in the 580's rode locker? I'd be surprised.

I have friends that don't quite have enough space (pesky cats) and you have to run forwards to scoop the rope from under the gypsy.

If you use stiffer rope, it may not fall as well, and that means tangles.

OTOH, if you mount a drum winch, they seem to run pretty well with any old rope on them, from what I have seen. Someone linked some cheap SS one from nz awhile back, so try search.

Worth a look at the lewmar site, specificaly their PDF file on installation.

http://www.lewmar.com/products.asp?id=8330&lid=25791

They detail the type of rope, mounting levels and angles etc.

I'll check it out guys. Cheers for the info.

There's definitely more to this than I anticipated. Will have to do a bit more research I think as to the space needed to fit this anchor winch.

1/ It occured to me last night that the height of the winch above the rope/chain pile is more to do with the weight of that rope or chain hanging down. So the longer the rope/chain can hang, the more weight there is pulling it away from the gypsy. So avoiding the rope chain from becomming jammed.

2/ The drum winch doesn't have that need.

3/ Structure of the winch mounting, is it strong enough to take the load, especially when anchored. Note that in the Lewmar operators manual, they still advise to have the chain/rope load taken up on the bollard or similiar.

4/ The drum winch as the rope is unwound off the shaft, the diameter of the rope wound around the shaft reduces, so when it commes to retriving it will have more power, but a slower retrival rate, as the diameter increases, less power and faster retrival rate ( The Lewmar type winch is uneffected).

5/ What I'm really interested in is the change in trim with all that weight being mounted forward. Again its moments, weight x distance from the C of G. So you can see there is quite a distance and alot of extra weight, I think some interesting results may occur. Or in my case where I have a heavey outboard causing a stern heavy condition, a benifit.

 That's a fair observation iana. I have very limited space in the anchor well which causes me concern as to having adequate space for the rope to fall after passing through the winch. As you also picked up on the drum style alleviates this concern due to storing the rope on the drum... It's just that I like the look of the lewmar as it is quite aesthetically pleasing to look at but unfortunately I don't think it will work for my application with my boat being space poor in the anchor well. On the other hand the theory behind the drum style winch would work its just that I'm trying to avoid a great big black drum sitting on the bow of my boat.

I have a HH600 and the lewmar pro series mounted in what dooes seem a pretty small well.  I'm pretty happy with it.  non freefall version though.

Have you goggled Stressfree images, or gone to the Stressfree web site and checked out their gallery. There are some very neat installations in small spaces on many boats like yours. It may give you an idea (s) to work on. looking at pictures of your boat type on the web, you have the bow sprit already, just needs the winch.

 I'll get onto the stressfree site and have a look. I get back into Perth in a couple days so I might just head into a dealership and see what fits into what.

http://www.maxwellmarine.com/PDF/PowerSail/Maxwell_Chainwheel.pdf