New owner with question

[Toon A Fish]

We recently bought our first pontoon. It is a small 16 foot Qwest fishing model. My question concerns mounting of an electric anchor winch. I know ideally it should be on the bow, but if I put it there it may block one of my docking lights. I have more space on the stern but don't know if this will a good idea. We only fish local lakes so usually pretty calm water. Does anyone have advice or opinions for me. Thanks

 

[alldodge]

The reason to place anchor on the bow is for waves that come at you. A boat with a transom can be swamped easy if anchored from the stern. A pontoon will not have quite the same issue, but could be tossed around if a large enough wake impacts at the stern.

 

[jakedaawg]

In my opinion it will be fine. Disadvantage might be that it will be difficult to reach by hand if you have to lean over a rail or seat or such.

 

[Scott Danforth]

the boat is only 16' long. are you sure you need an anchor winch?

as AD stated, anchoring the stern in many cases will swamp the boat

 

[Toon A Fish]

Large wakes shouldn't be too much of a problem most places we go. We have a 20lb anchor and we are in our 60s with back problems so a winch with remote switch is the best for us. If I understand the answers then it seems like it will work? Thanks for your help

 

[Ken Kitchen]

I own an 18' Landau pontoon and installed an electric anchor winch on the bow and used it for about 4-5 years until the motor shorted out and died. The only problem I had was that the winch would only pull the rope, which meant that I had to bend over the bow and pull up the 4' of anchor chain and anchor out of the water and up on the deck. If I had some space on the stern deck of my pontoon, I would have mounted it there..shorter run for the wiring also.
If you pull up the pictures of my boat, you can see the winch mounted on the port side on the bow..
But, that's just me...Good Luck

 

[Toon A Fish]

Yes that is the drawback, can't use any chain. On the stern I would only have to run wire 4 ft. The whole install would be easier. I have thought maybe I could make a shallow water stick for the bow if needed if the boat seems to turn on anchor.

 

[Silver Eagle]

That's something you don't need.

 

[bansil]

I would think rear mounted would be bad; if you move back wards to "unhook" the anchor the prop may be an issue correct?