Choosing and fitting an anchor windlass

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LORDNELSON

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I want to fit a windlass to my Westerly Merlin 28 and would be grateful for advice about which windlass to choose and any pitfalls in selection, fitting and operation. Anchor is a 10 Kg, proposed chain is either 6 or 8 mm (40 metres). Gentle cruising South Coast, mainly Solent / Poole / Chichester. Many thanks for any contributions.
 
Apologies if this is hijacking your post, but I'm also interested in this. You don't say if you want manual or electric, horizontal or vertical. We fitted a Lofrans 1000 watt winch to our last boat (a Westerly 33). It was excellent and made anchoring much safer, since it was no trouble to lift and re-anchor if it didn't set first time. We now have another boat (Westerly Corsair) and this came with a manual Simpson Lawrence windlass, and of course, these are no longer made. Anchoring with this is much slower and, obviously, harder work. We will fit an electric windlass this winter and although I would be very happy to fit another Lofrans, my local chandler tells me that the new Lewmar and the Quick windlasses are both excellent and much cheaper. I would be intereted to hear from forumites who have fitted any of these.

In response to the OP, I would say fit an electric windlass - you won't regret it. We fitted ours ourselves and although it was time consuming, it wasn't particularly dificult. We powered it from the main service batteries, but next time I would fit a dedicated slave battery forward - this obviates the need to run heavy and expensive cabling all through the boat. There was a good article on fitting this to a Westerly Oceanquest in PBO a few monts back. I would also recommend a control switch in the cockpit for those times when you are short handed. Hope this helps, Bob
 
Hi,
I fitted a Lofrans 1000watt unit to my Rival 32 two seasons ago. It has rekindled my love of anchoring that had declined due to the effort previously required. The power cables required are large and the routing can be difficult. Also pay attention to the fall of the chain to ensure there is sufficient depth for it not to pile up rand jam. I fitted foredeck switches and a separate switch in the cockpit for ease of short handed anchoring. When you have fitted and used it you will wonder why you had not done it years ago!
 
First choice manual or electric. Big price difference £450 approx to over £1000 installed.

Second choice, vertical or horizontal axis - to an extent depends on the installation - you might try the Westerly Owners site for more detail on this. Size/power is relatively easy decision as all manufacturers will give recommendations. The Lewmar site has good information on windlass choice

Third choice make. Plenty of choice here, popular brands are Lofrans, Lewmar, Vetus and Quick.

My personal experience is with an SL Anchorman vertical axis manual on a boat similar to yours. Excellent and in my view superior to horizontal manual units. However, not sure it is available now. Also have a Lofrans Cayman on a 37 footer. Works well.

I am not sure with your size boat and anchor an electric is necessary, but prices have fallen of 700w units (your size) so they are more reasonable. However, be aware that installation costs can be as much as the windlass!
 
You don't say if you want a manual or powered windlass. If it's a manual one you want I can speak from my own experiences with a second-hand Lofrans Royal.

I bought it for £20 and it was seized up . Stripping it down took some time, as several s/s fastenings in aluminium castings had to be drilled out. Even if you go for a new Lofrans I would advise you to strip it down before fitting and apply Duralac to the screw threads.

Spare parts are only available from ECS Ltd, and the prices are ridiculously high. Fortunately I only needed screws and a circlip, which I was able to get from a local engineers' merchant.

Mine is it is now fitted to the boat and it works well, but it is quite slow in use, and I usually pull the chain in hand-over-hand unless there is a lot of strain on it.
 
I can thoroughly recommend the Lofrans Airon 1000w windlass, which is a vertical type, and has a very small foredeck 'footprint'. Superbly made bit of kit that worked faultlessly during our almost tens years full time cruising and ever since.

We bought the chrome/bronze version rather than the aluminium one to avoid any possiblility of corrosion problems, though have not heard of any problems with the latter. We also didn't bother with the winch type drum that can be fitted above, and have never needed it.

Because I used to singlehand a lot (and still do a fair bit) we also fitted a cockpit control as well as the standard push-button wander lead that plugs into a foredeck socket.
 
Thanks very much for the input. I deliberately made it a very general query because I wanted all views. My inclination is to install an electric powered vertical axis windlass. Whilst manual winches make installation easier and cheaper, I feel they are very slow in retrieving an anchor.
 
Yes, that is true of horizontal manual windlasses as you only get a limited lift each crank. However the vertical windlass such as the Anchorman allows winding through 360 degrees. You have to kneel for the job, but otherwise it is relatively effortless. I lift the 25lb CQR and 5/16 chain no problem, and it takes rope as well. However, as I noted, I don't think it is made anymore, which suggests not enough people want such a simple piece of kit!
 
Yes, originally I thought of an S L Anchorman but had no experience of them I always thought that they might be hard to wind being so low down and one having to kneel. May be I will have to think again if I can find a second hand anchorman for sale!
 
Ideally look for one that has the rope capstan on the top as this raises the handle height and also the socket is in the middle rather than offset.

Good luck.
 
We are in the same situation as the OP and CSpirit in that we plan an installation soon.

We have had a vertical SL Sprint 500 for the last 10 years and I would concur with the other posters that IMO an electric one is highly desirable. It is not just the retrieval in the morning, it is the fact that if you are not happy with your anchor set intially it is easy to take it up and relay it. After many years cruising the west coast of Scotland we now only sleep on our anchor when we are sure we really are anchored. This involves lots of reverse engine revs and quite frequently this breaks the anchor out. With an electric windlass it is easy to relay it.

I am no electrics expert but I take issue with the poster who suggested a separate battery - surely this needs the same size wiring to feed it from the alternator when using the windlass.

As regards horizontal vs vertical, our existing windlass is vertical and I would go down this route again. The chain engages with more teeth on the gypsy and I have heard of stories of chain jumping off a horizontal one.

We have the capstan model and although we have never used it, it is a comfort to know we have a source of grunt if we needed to pull anything in dire circumstances.

As regards chain size, our experiences point to the heavier the better. For a 28' boat I would go for 8mm as a minimum. We have 3/8th (10mm) on a 31' and a good number of times we have seen boats drag in near gales and full gales with 5/16" chain. Just depends if you think you are likely to be at anchor in more extreme conditions.

Now with the sad demise of SL the choice is difficult. I think we have narrowed it down to Lofrans or Lewmar. Any other inputs from people would be most welcome.

As for windlass power, our existing windlass is 500W and a well dug in CQR (in mud) is just too much for it so we sometimes have to drive the boat over the anchor to get it out. I am going to try one of these 'second generation' anchors this time so I suspect we will have to do the same even with a 1000w model.

I do like the fact that most modern windlasses seem to have the motors offset at 90 degrees to the chain fall. Our SL sprint has the motor mounted vertically and the water running off the chain soaks the motor and we have had to replace the motor on one occasion when the terminal rotted - not easy.
 
Just a couple of other points. Lofrans is probably the most popular brand on charter boats in the Med. These probably get more use in a year than most private boats get in a lifetime. The mechanisms themselves seem bullet proof but the contacts in the relays wear. However the control box is easy and relatively cheap to replace.

For controls, I am not keen on foot controls, but prefer a control box on a wander lead. However the normal sockets mounted in the locker (such as originally fitted on my Bavaria) are useless. Very vulnerable and exposed. My wander lead is hard wired to inside the boat and comes out through the forehatch. I would also recommend a radio cotrolled remote such as the one made by Coastline Technologies. The handset can be worn on a lanyard around the neck or used in a bracket at the helm.
 
I echo Tranona, a corded remote is great.

I have just been to the shops to get the Sailing Today review but already the Nov issue is in. If anyone has the Oct copy with the review would they kindly like to paraphrase the conclusions please?
 
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