Attaching anchor pully to bow of canoe

[KevinS]

Hello:

I wish to install a removable bow mounted anchor pulley to my one-man Old Town Pack canoe. What I'd like to install is same setup as in the picture below (I already have the same pulley). Just curious if anyone here has added an bow anchor pulley to their canoe and/or has design suggestions.





Thank you,

Kevin

[BentRod]

Kevin,
Never attached a pulley to a canoe. Tried looking at your posted picture and it's a bit small. Can you post a bigger picture?

[The Quadfather]

Like was before mentioned, take a close up photo of what your canoe setup is like currently. Here is a couple links to what looks like an easy system. Myself, I wonder if you really need a winch to go with your pulley system?? (I'm saying I think for the size of your anchor it seems more than you need is all...) Look at the first pic. of the pulley system, imagine your anchor falling line through that... then tie it off to a cleat on your bow or somewhere.
It also gets me to thinking,,, what are the norms for anchoring a canoe?? One anchor off the bow sounds like a spinning canoe to me#-o
The link
http://shopping.yahoo.com/701011998-tra ... hor-winch/

has a winch unit that sounds like what you are asking about. It looks pretty small and like it might fit on your canoe bow somewhere. Something to think about anyway.....

[KevinS]

Quad:

That's the pulley I have.

My canoe is basically the same as the one in the photo. The photo is of a Discovery 119 and I have the Pack model. I also have the stabilizers and an electric trolling motor.

The pulley will be screwed into the wood mounting bracket so I can remove whole thing when not needed (hope the larger picture shows it better).

[BentRod]

Kevin,
Thanks for the larger picture, but it's too pixelated to make out details.
Is the board that the pully is anchored to clamped to the canoe in some way?
Some pictures of the bow of your canoe might be helpful to visualize what you have to work with. ?

[The Quadfather]

Kevin,

So did you look at the link I posted which showed a small electric type of winch? At least I think it was electric?
Anyway.... is that something that would work for you?

[KevinS]

Quad - I was referring to the image you posted as being the anchor pulley I have. I'm not installing a winch, I'm just using that anchor pulley so I can manually raise and lower the anchor from my seat instead of moving to the bow.

The Anchor Pulley is a lock and release pulley that sets or releases the anchor rope without the need for leaving your seat.


My apologies to everyone for the lousy images. Photobucket keeps resizing all my photos to tiny size.

I previously uploaded images and they were not minimized when posted. Photobucket even minimized the high resolution photos I took today.


Anyway, I'll just use the photos I took today to give a visual of what I'm going to build. The anchor pulley is screwed to a piece of wood that extends in front of the bow where the anchor will raise and lower. I won't need to move from my seat to the bow to raise / lower the anchor because the pulley locks and releases the anchor rope. The whole wooden mounting assembly will be clamped (somehow) to the canoe so that I can remove / reattach as needed.

Old Town Pack Canoe - 1 person canoe:



To give you an idea of the triangular bow handle size, it's approx 18 inches long and 11 inches wide:



Here's the anchor pulley sitting on a piece of wood to show where it will be when mounted:

[The Quadfather]

Kevin,

The pulley mechanism that you have could easily be mounted on the tip of the canoe, and you wouldn't have to mess with that board on top. There should be four corner holes in the pulley, put stainless screws threw that and your set. It won't be any problem to drill through the canoe,,, but if that is something you really don't want to do, you could take a much smaller board similar to the one you have but only big enough to cover completely the handle/hole at the bow of the canoe.
Have the one board over the hand neatly, and then a second board of equal or slightly smaller size underneath that handle hole in within the canoe. You could use to "Lag bolts" side by side through the top board.. through the handle hole... and through the bottom board. Pre drill the holes in the wood so the bolts go right through and it is easier. The anchor pulley mounts on top of the top board. As you tighten down the lag bolts the two boards squeeze the canoe and hold it all in place.
If it was me though I would definitely just mount the pulley to the tip of the canoe with for stainless screws. Much neater looking. The board sandwhich will just allow you to take it off any time you aren't using it though.
let us know what you do.

[BentRod]

I picture something similar to what Quad described. I'd go with carriage bolt(s) through the top board (square holes in that one for the carriage bolts, so you don't need a wrench to tighten them down) and wing nuts on the bottom. Should be able to get by with one, maybe two bolts depending on what you use for your bottom bracing board. I'd also add a couple of 1"x1" cleats to the bottom of your pulley board up where it meets the bow of the boat. One on each side in a "V" pattern , so that it hugs the nose of the boat when the unit is tightened down, this will keep it from pivoting left or right while pulling up the anchor.

[Gringo Pescador]

Kevin

I put the same setup on my canoe (since sold it or I would have put up a picture). The pulley I had was of the same design only plastic. I didn't use a board, just mounted it straight to the bow. Then had a 5# pyramid anchor running off it.

It worked pretty good, but...

I ended up wrapping the anchor in pipe insulation foam and black tape because when it was pulled up and I was rowing, it would swing back & forth and bang the crap outta the canoe. Of course this made it huge, but it worked. The board should put it far enough away to eliminate this.

I had to put a rope cleat near my seat because when I had the anchor down, if the rope got some slack, it would release the lock and slowly line would come off and I would start drifting. I also had problems getting the thing to release to lower it in the 1st place. This is probably because of the cheap pulley I used though.

I did end up getting a 2nd anchor for the back because when anchoring only the front it basically made the canoe into a floating wind sock and I would continually pivot around and around.

Hope this helps. Make sure and post up results when you get it done!:cheers:

[zen leecher aka Bill W]

I have a motor bracket for that canoe... IM me if you're interested. It clamps onto one of the cross pieces.

[KevinS]

Thank you for the suggestions. I'll likely go with the "sandwich" of 2 boards. I'll connect the boards using bolts / wing nuts and have wood blocks up front to prevent sliding sideways off the bow. I'll use a filler block in the handle hole to keep things from moving back and forth.

Didn't think about being spun around by the wind when using 1 anchor. I'll buy extra wood for a second assembly. Want to test the first one in case revisions are needed and then make the second.

Thanks again.

Kevin

[JWS]

I know you have the pully already but have you thought about taking an anchor trolley design commonly used by almost every kayak angler? I they are very easy to set up and would in my opinion be a better way to go(no pinwheeling in the wind). Check out northwestkayakanglers.com there are numerous threads on design and set up. I think this system might be a tad safer as well.