Excused duties

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Sailfree

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Been allowed out to play by SWMBO in the solent this weekend. First sail of the year!

Had both the Malwaukee 28V battery drill and the winch bit delivered from the states so will be seeing how good it is effectively making any of my winches (especially the halyard winch) electric. Previously posted about this bit of kit and the rationale for trying it after reading about it on a American website. Hopefully I will be able to report back on it next week.

Is there anyone else out playing in the Solent this weekend?
 
Talking of duties, how did you get on with import charges? Did you have to pay duty & VAT? And can you recharge the drill from a 12v source, or does it involve using an inverter?
 
No VAT or duty on the winch bit. Someone else kindly arranged the importing of the drill so can't advise further.

I have bought a 220v/110v converter from Maplins that takes a US plug. The drill is being delivered tonight so don't know what wattage for charging the 28V battery so I just bought the biggest at 300W for £29. I am sure it could be smaller (roughly £10 per 100W) but you never know what US product you might want to use it on next!!
 
Saturday was a bit blustery but tried it on Sunday and the main went up a treat.

Certainly make things easy on a calm day but its a biggish piece of kit for a rough day. Tried to further tightening the halyard after by hand and could not budge it so suspect it applied more torque than I would normally do.

When we sail as a couple for MOB in a sea I did tell the wife to get a rope to me then use a spare halyard but take it to the electric windlass. The drill would work fine lifting a person out of the water using the winch. Would save a lot of time not having to get the anchor chain off the windlass and get the halyard out of the clutches and deck tidies to take it forwards all while in a bit of a panic! Food for thought!!

Got to say that as a number of American sailors use this system I did expect it to work as I have normally find Americans results orientated and have no patience if it does do what it says on the tin.

Did think it would probably charge from 220V but was concerned that the resulting voltage might be 56V DC instead of the required 28V!
 
The cordless drill winch driver sound great, but the price asked for the bit to engage the winch (45USD) makes the eyes water a bit. For the benefit of others there are some pictures here.

Do you have a right angle adaptor for the drill (as shown in the first picture)?

Mark
 
Re: Great!

Answer 2 questions at once!

The American website posters opinion was that the Malwaukee 28V rt angle drill which has 600lb ins of torque is the only way to go at present. The next nearest drill is only half the torque which is a De Walt at 300lb ins.

This obviously assumes your weight of sails is sufficient to warrant investing in an electric winch. I have a 43' and would have an electric halyard winch if it was not a charter boat. A bit of misjudgement on the part of a charterer would rip the sail in two!

Due to the torque being delivered you need a fair lever arm and solid grips to hold it. A conventional drill with a rt angle fitment just won't do. The Milwaukee is about 15" long and has a left hand grip about 10" long in addition to the conventional handle (look it up on their website). Weight about 7kg. My only reservation is holding such a fair size bit of kit in blustery conditions but otherwise it worked surprisingly well.

Its certainly cheaper than electric winches and would make life easy if age was catching up with you (our club allows Mobo's in the marina if they are the progression for our more elderly sailor members that can not longer manage a sailing boat.
 
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