Positioning the windlass involved a
lot of scalp massage. It cannot go too far back, because the chain would
go down next to the access door. Filling in the old chainpipe
could be a pain. The gypsy cannot be centered, because the chain would
come to it at an angle. The motor cannot be turned towards one side,
because then the drum would be useless. The original rollers sit
lower than the gunwale with the teak trim. The chain and the anchor stem
would chew away that teak in no time, plus there is the extra friction
to worry about when hauling in the anchor.
The solution is to line up the
gypsy with the starboard roller. Place the motor between the old
chainpipe and back of the anchor chamber. The chain is not going to
slump against the door, and the drum end of the machine can be used to
set a second anchor. By splitting the anchor chamber, the line of the
second anchor could be fed down the old chainpipe.
Click on pictures to see full size images
To balance the asymmetry of
the motor placement, the footswitches were moved to port.
I got 50 feet of chain spliced to
200 feet of line. The extra cleat serves two purposes. The anchor stem
is pulled down to it, so the anchor sits very snugly in its
place. Clanking eliminated! When the boat is at anchor, the anchor
line is tied to this cleat rather than than the starboard bow cleat.
This way the line is straight and cannot chafe on the back edge of the
bow roller.
The teak was cut so the Kingston bow
roller would sit on the fibreglass gunwale. Four bolts hold it, and the
bottom outside corner is fastened with a bracket to the bowsprit. The
holes on the bow roller cannot be used to secure the anchor with a pin.
They are pretty decorations now.
The bracket that connects the new
bow roller's corner to the old frame is T-shaped and bolted on
both sides. The hook and the line pull the anchor back to the new
cleat.
These are the backing plates in
the anchor chamber. The smaller one is for the new cleat. I mixed
epoxy with micro balloons to toothpaste consistency and buttered the
top side of the plywood. The epoxy that oozed out was used to seal the
edges of the plates. The bottom of the windlass got a layer of
Sikkaflex.
The 2 gauge monster
cables come to this solenoid from the battery compartment.
This is how the cables were routed: battery compartment, bottom
edge of engine bay door, under the fridge, under the stove, past the aft
end of the water tanks, up into the storage behind the seats, through
the hanging lockers closest to the gunwale, through the side storage
compartments in the v-berth. Lots of drilling! Due to the bends, I
needed 2x45 feet of cable. The thinner wires go to the motor and the
switches.
The windlass can be operated with
the foot switches on the foredeck or this rocker switch in the
cockpit. Three wires connect the rocker switch to the solenoid in the
anchor chamber.
The canvas cap goes under the
drum, and clips under the chain. It keeps the rain away from the chain
hole.
There is one more component I need
to mention, an in-line thermal breaker for the heavy cable. I mounted
this breaker on the outside of the engine box, to the left of the
access door. It can be reached easily from the cockpit.
Everything works perfectly. The
windlass has tremendous power and speed. It handles the anchor and the
50 feet of chain effortlessly. The total cost of the project was
$2100.
