Small Aluminum Boat anchor options?

[slowleak]

I'm in the process of setting up a 14ft Starcraft SF for a buddy. He's got arthritis issues with his hands and can't pull an anchor rope or maneuver around a boat that easy so I'm looking for some option for an anchor. The boat will mainly be used for back bay and river fishing. Ideally, the anchor would be about small fluke type anchor or heavier river anchor.
The boat already has an Anchormate II hand winch with an oversized handle on it, but there's no bow roller or anchor stop.

I'm looking for options to use that hand winch for a conventional anchor. Maybe some sort of bow roller assembly that will fit onto the front aluminum bow cap somehow that will hold the anchor securely without it dangling and beating up the hull underway. The boat has a 40hp Evinrude so its capable of decent speeds, but being a bench seat model, an 85 year old with arthritis really shouldn't be walking around too much.

I've got an anchormate II set up on my 17ft boat and it works well but it won't park a fluke type anchor, only a round bell or river anchor, neither of which are much good in any sort of current. I took the 14ft boat out myself the other day, even at 55 its a handful to walk around stepping over seats in even the slightest chop.
The original bow roller assembly rusted away to nothing, so another Anchormate replacement isn't much of a choice but all I see is 15" long self launching rollers meant for much larger boats.

Maybe someone has an idea for a home made anchor holder?

 

[Texasmark]

Might find something here: https://www.boatid.com/anchors.html

I used to have a Fluke (Danforth) with a sliding ring (similar to this: https://www.boatid.com/panther/panth....html.....from that site). You led it down above where you want to anchor and either let the current pull you against it, wind blow you, or reverse your engine, letting out at least 3:1 "scope" in calm water, as much as 10:1 when rough.

I fed the rope through the bow eye that is used to winch the boat on the trailer since I didn't have a top mounted pivot point like is for sale on this mentioned site......which would be ideal. The anchor rope then went directly back to a boat cleat adjacent to where I was seated and was secured when the desired length was reached.

I would use a poly anchor rope that floated and when time came to retrieve anchor, I would crank up and drive toward the anchor and in the process drive alongside the floating anchor rope picking it up and bringing it onboard as I went.

I continued toward the anchor and drove past it as much as it took, maybe 2 or 3:1 scope again, reattaching to the cleat adjacent to where I was sitting, causing the ring to slip to the other end and in the process easily removing the anchor from it's mooring point.

Really the best anchor I ever had for convenience and effective anchoring. The flukes on mine were fatter than on the anchor pictured, but you get the idea on what works.....in any kind of bottom.....site may have other versions of the slip ring.....I just pointed you in the right direction.....you take it from there...Grin.

 

[slowleak]

The type of anchor isn't so much in question as is having something to hold the anchor when its winched into place.
The owner isn't able to handle the rope very well so hand over hand pulling in an anchor isn't an option.
The boat already has a hand crank winch and rope, but the original bow fixture rusted away years ago and wasn't much good for an anchor that would be used in moving current. Its a small boat and likely won't need much of an anchor to hold it but I've not seen many options in bow rollers or anchor nests for small boats that can handle a danforth or similar anchor. They're all made for mushroom type anchors. He mostly fishes for perch and catfish in the rivers and brackish back bays. The boat has a side console at the right rear, which I suppose is where he'll likely fish from and the anchor winch is there too. The boat has a series of guides and rollers along the starboard side to guide the rope to the bow, I just need to figure out what sort of anchor holding fixture to use so that the retrieved anchor isn't dangling and banging around up front while underway.
With a 40hp motor, the boat is pretty fast, so the anchor must be secure when winched into place. A 10 or 12 lb anchor banging around up there would beat the hull to death.

 

[Texasmark]

Might www sport fishing boats and look at bow mounts to get an idea. Surely there are Fluke anchors out there that are remotely operated. Good luck as anything that would secure an anchor of that type would have a difficult problem to solve.....how to let it drop mechanically.....on a small boat with minimum clearance between the mounting apparatus and the surface of the water.

 

[slowleak]

The only thing I see is round anchors being used with hand winches. My question isn't what type of anchor, I've got dozens here to choose from, but I'm looking for a better solution for the bow roller/anchor holder set up.
If I buy the Anchor Mate bow fixure, its only good for small round mushroom or river anchors. The only fluke type anchor holders I've seen are huge, 15" or longer made for big anchors and bigger boats. This is a 14ft Starcraft 14SF, he uses it to crab and fish a few small rivers here. The deepest water is likely about 15ft but the average is likely more like 8ft.
The back bays and creeks have the most current, the rivers here are pretty slow moving.

If it were my boat, I'd just toss a fluke anchor and tie it off, but the guy that owns this boat has issues handling the rope and anchor. The boat has no electrical system, its a rope start motor with battery powered lights, so a powered windlass is out of the question and it would likely be a problem to mount since the only flat surface area on the bow is the small aluminum bow casting that's about 10" wide and 8" long.
Right now the boat has an oversized boat cleat there to secure the anchor rode to but he's lost a few anchors after not being able to pull them in by hand. I put a full size handle on the Anchor Mate II winch and he can work that fine. I also put a snow blower type pull handle on the motor.