Adding an Anchormate II to my Lowe 1448T
Friday, September 12th, 2008As I mentioned in the previous post, I took the boat out and it was a bit windy. The wind had me drifting quite fast, making any kind of fishing difficult. I had to drift into pads or reeds just to stop and be able to cast around or drop a bobber in. I guess it’s time to add one of the two Anchormate IIs I bought for the boat.
The Anchormate II, which I got from Cabelas, is a nice unit that allows you to wind up your anchor, and have the anchor itself sit securely in a holder mounted to the boat. No leaning over the edge to lift, no mess from bringing the anchor into the boat. Since most of what I’m doing now is temporary (I’m installing casting decks eventually), I’m just doing the simplest mount I can to make it functional so I can get out on the water.
I used some treated 2″x4″s that I cut to size to hold the ‘bow fixture’. I screwed the bottom one to the bow seat with some deck screws, then screwed through the bow fixture and the top piece into the bottom piece. I designed in a notch so I could route the rope down low close to the seat, but after testing it found that it added a bit to much tension. In the final version I’ll definitely use a pulley wheel there.
For the reel part, I simply screwed it to the side of the console, which is where I think I’ll mount the final version as well. Now, when I want to drop anchor, I simply turn the dial on the reel, and the anchor lowers itself down. When I want it back up, I reel it up. Perhaps someday I’ll go the power reel route, but for now I’m cool with this setup.
The Anchormate II bow fixture
The Anchormate II reel mounted to my console
The Anchormate II set installed