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 Recently fitted a drum winch to my 5.8 metre boat, i whent for a sav winch, soley as they are made in Australia, Melbourne

 5 models to chose from ended up with the 1000 model, fits into my anchor well nicely, nice and quite, only used it a few times but no problems so far

 the only thing is the noise from the chain as you lower or raise it as it rolls over the rollers, have since purchased a roll of chain guard, a type of sock that goes over the chain

 not yet fitted, belive there will be several types of products on show at the boat show next weekend, send me a pm and i will email you some pics

 Hope that helped

We have a stress free midi fitted to ours works great had a bit of a problem where the whole motor siezed up as it got water in it. Sent a few photos of the motor to the HQ in the east and new motor was in the mail within a week. Ever since the motor was swapped never had a problem with it. Last time it worked so good we are now missing and anchor.

 I bought a lonestar marine drum winch about 7 months ago and it is brilliant. I have a 5.4m runabout, fits in the anchor well perfectly. They did a custom wiring loom which made the installation simple. It is the best thing I have bought for my boat by a mile. Most of my boating is spent diving these days so pulling an anchor up after each dive was a pain in the arse. I got the generation 2 600 model, perfect size for what I need, plenty of pulling power - pulled up 2 anchors a few weeks back when we found one on a dive and attached to the anchor line. If you want some pictures let me know, I wouldn't have another boat without one now. 

Just fitted one gen 2 1000, for price you cant go wrong and they stand by their product. Couldnt justify a grand extra for free fall.. Got mine at Hitech marine they have the sav winch there also.. Did a lot of research. Got the winch, wiring, rope and chain kit all for 2k. Stress free 2.5k for winch alone and around the same for sav winch. Fitted to 6.2 haines hunter

Getting good feedback here, but there is one other important item to consider. The bow sprit and roller. I went and looked at a heap of boats with anchor winches fitted, not many drum winches though. All the bow sprits seemed to be too long for the anchor, my wife suggested they need to be that way in order to stop the anchor hitting the hull on retrieval. I have a Delta 4kg and I thought that the bow sprit/roller assy need only to be long enough so that the plough was not touching the bow of the boat when stowed, however it does tend to "swim" a bit when I retrieve it, so is damage to the hull an issue? any thoughts here?

Mine is as you described, just long enough so that the anchor doesnt hit the hull when stored and certainly not oversized. Never had an issue with anchor hitting the hull when retrieving or during transit.

 Have a lone star gen 1 for my 5.1 quinnie  awesome value, best thing I put on the boat.

Because we are no longer as young as we were (sounds logical) and cannot access the anchor well easily, does fitting of one of these winches mean we can do our anchoring from the comfort of the cabin, or is it still necessary to release the anchor manually from the bow roller at times, tend to tangles and over runs etc.?

Looked at the various models of drum winches and settled on the "Stress-free Mini NG"
The unit is well made and has the feature, that if you have a flat battery, you can still deploy the anchor.
It just fits in the anchor-well, but as the well is just thin glass over ply, I will have to reinforce the mounting.
The install looks like its going to be a pain, extending the bow sprit, got the Sarca A1-2 roller sprit assy. Since it is protruding out from the bow will have to reinforce that area as well.
Have also brought the chain sock to cut back the noise of the chain.
So thanks for your input guys.

 they are an aussie product not as expensive as stress free

I managed to pick a cool morning to do fibre glassing, at daybreak we spent the next hour or so sandwiching in marine ply and epoxy resin and glass to reinforce the floor of the anchor well.
All went as well as expected. Placing the winch assy in the well for preliminary fit and I can't reach the mechanism that releases the drum if there is an electrical failure!!!
Shit. F---K and dam. That's the reason I brought it to use that feature.
The only way this winch can be mounted is against a vertical bulk head, bolting it to a floor 1/ puts vital electrics low down in water, and makes maintenance a nightmare, apart from not being able to release the drum overriding the clutch.
Now I have to reinforce the vertical wall of the anchor well and bolt it against that.
Apart from reinforcing the vertical back of the anchor well, my next part of the project is the bow sprit, stainless reinforcing, and some reinforcing below deck.

Hi all,

I am just wondering if there is anyone out there that can recommend someone to install a Lonestar winch to my boat,

I have tried a few places now with not much luck.

Cheers and thanks for any input...

it's not that hard. I did mine in a weekend.  

I'm looking at installing a drum winch in time for my LSL in May. I'm pretty keen on the SS Savwinch and won't be looking to install the fast fall as I'll be anchoring in 20-25m max but mostly in shallow water when I take the kids out or around the 3 Mile.

How is everyone's Savwinches holding up?

 If there is glassing and mods involved, whole price can be towards $4K. Some hulls obviously easier than others. Mine was in the "others", looked at an instal and thought nup, I'll get a windlass type. Horizontal type. No mods needed, easy fit. After a lot of research, it became obvious the "issues", if there were any, centred around the type of rope used. Apart from going as cheap as possible with the winch, the problem is the need for an expensive rope, which people baulk at. They then try to use silver rope, with immediate problems. And blame the winch. Or they go up to a 3 strand soft lay nylon, better, but always problems down the track. This can be minimised by , would you believe it, washing the rope in fabric softener. The rope must have a very soft and even lay, not prone to twisting. So 3 strand nylon( of the correct size)is OK, but the best by far is 8-strand plait nylon. Once people start using this, the complaints cease. I've followed threads on this, and spoken to actual owners, and it is a common reply. When you look at the price, it can be eye-watering--but to get a decent amount of rope on most drums, you need to go to 6mm or 8mm Dyneema, and that is also bloody expensive in bulk. Ok if you are only going to anchor in 20 m, you'll get 60m of silver rope of them. Bit different if you want to anchor in 35 metres regularly, you need at least 100 m. I have 150m of 12mm 8-strand plait in my anchor well for my Maxwell HRC FF-6, so I can anchor over 50 m deep if necessary.

I haven't had a lot of use for it yet, but, when I have, it is very powerful and easy to use.  Proponents of drum winches say they have the advantage of not needing to be tied off, but I fail to see the difference--in both designs,if they are freefall,  you are pulling against the clutch when anchored. I could do the whole thing without ever sticking my head through the front hatch, but the results of having an anchor come loose when travelling at speed are not pretty for your gear or boat, so I have a chain stopper. I lift this before freefalling the anchor, and it auto re-engages when retrieving. If it is really blowy, I will take a figure 8 on the cleat in front of the winch to take the load off. Haven't had to do it yet.

Jackfrost, you might want to rethink the non-freefall bit. None of these things power out very quickly, and, if you are trying to anchor in a fresh breeze--and why else do you anchor?--you will drift a fair away, despite your best efforts, before the pick hits the bottom. And then, you will be dragging it as you continue to power out. If you want really accurate anchoring, free fall is the only way to go.

To sum it up, I needed a lot of work if I wanted to fit any drum winch to my Dominator, and a horizontal , freefall, windlass fitted easily. And does the job. Just be sure you hunt down the best price on the right type of rope.

 I used them for many years on various boats. Even used to do it solo, and it was really just the solo thing that  swayed me to the winch. It was easier with a CC, got bit harder with the cuddy, particularly if you wanted to make small adjustments to where you were hanging. Anchoring, for me normally means something like a fresh easterly, and I knew I was sometimes spending too long on a spot which had proved unproductive because I couldn't be arsed to pull the pick. No issue with the winch, now, of course.

Installation on the Dommie meant cutting out the dual walled front bulkhead and reglassing a heavy piece in. Good big well, just the wrong shape. I've seen SA Dommies with a drum winch actually mounted inside the cab as a compromise, on a board between the seats. Ugly, and it means you need a hawsepipe from the foredeck into the cab, and you are pulling water in every time you pull the pick, not to menton the possibilty of taking in a lot of water if you take  green water over the bow. If you can just bolt it straight to an existing bulkhead without  developing an extra elbow on each arm, you're laughing. Another issue with drums can be bunching on one side, but there are convex rollers available, fit it between the drum and the fairlead, slightly larger diameter in the centre than the ends, which makes the rope run back and forward, giving a more even wind on.

I have a Savwinch on my Belvedere 550, which fits quite well in the front anchor well. I've had no problems with it yet, it works perfectly fine.

I share the boat with my father, and he was quite keen on getting the Savwinch vs any other brand, personally I found Savwinch guy to be kind of a dick who made some rather grandiose claims. There was one point where he said "This winch has a 500 watt motor, but, its the same power as a 700 watt motor" When I asked what that means, since watt is measurement of power, he said "Oh, you mean like mathematical power...?" super condending like it was a retarded question. (I was asking about electrical power draw so I could work out how I was going to wire it, etc...)

Also, I really dislike how they badge their "Electronic Freefall" since it's an oxymoron. It's not a freefall at all. It's just driving the motor in reverse at a greater rate. Other drum winches actually have a clutch and can manually disengage the spool from the motor, which is what I would consider a proper "free fall". (I just looked up their website, they don't call it a freefall anymore, they must have realised they were being disingenuous). There are advantages to having no clutch in that there's less parts to fail, but, in the event that your winch were to stop working, there's no real way in an emergency to drop the anchor since its all wound up on the drum. (You could mitigate this by just taking an extra anchor rope out with you, but, its something to consider).

As much as I just griped about the fast fall system, I don't have it on my boat, and I very much want it (I can't justify the expense yet) The standard drop speed is so slow. Even in the shallow stuff you're talking about, I think you'll be surprised at how annoyingly slow it is to drop the anchor, particularly since you have to hold the switch down the entire time.

 All good info lads so I guess I start looking at Muir or Stressfree with built in freefall

i have a savwinch 1500 ss...without the 'freefall' system... installed it myself after purchasing it at the mandurah boat show...no problems so far... runs well... but  if i had my time again i would have gotten the lone star one... seems like a better product especially the lone star circuit breaker being made in the USA...and most of its components made in aus with the exception of the gear box...pricing as well is reasonable...

 I did a lot of research on this, and with the drum winches, the Lonestar, particularly the later ones, get a consistently high customer satisfaction. Savwinch, not so much. Stressfree is more expensive(?), Micks winches are also well regarded, SA made.

 i have a lonestar drum winch for sale if any one is chasing one

 it is a G3-1000D model

i can also supply winch roller and bow sprite to suit

 First time I have used it more than once a trip, moving around anchoring up at the Bay. The winch itself is great, but I have identified a couple of issues, all of my own making. 

1. I have too much rope on it. MOST of the time, it is fine, particularly if the weather is a bit sloppy. But, if you retreive on a flat calm, the rope builds up directly under the gypsy, and, when you go to freefall next, you can get a twist jam in the gypsy, as the rope has no length in whch to untwist the tight little loops it is laying when it is stacking  all the way to the underdeck in a neat little pyramid.  This only has happened once, so I'll reduce the 150 M down to 130M, this should be more than enough. Fixing the immediate problem simply involved reaching into the well and pulling back on the rope, which is easy enough on my setup, but I don't want to have to do it.
2. I engineered, ( bodged?) a bowsprit setup with a hinged roller to get the necessary bow clearance and self launching capability. I reckon you need a loop over the bow roller to retain the anchor, all of the purpose built units have them, so I welded one up with a large s/s shackle, free to swing around. Unfortunately, the rope can get between it and the side of the sprit on retrieval, causing jams. The fix is simple, weld it so it cant swing down. 

Apart from a couple of the issues of my own making, brilliant.