Lewmar Windlass

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I've been having on going poblems with my Vertical electric reversable Lewmar windlass fitted to my 2004 Birchwood 370. I can't find a serial number on the windlass but it looks like a V series with capstan.

When the 'down' switches are pressed (either at helm or at the bow) the anchor will not feed out, instead we get a loud 'clicking' noise. I contacted Lewmar who gave me the name of their service agent 'Winch sevices'. I contacted but they have not been at all helpful as they are 'too busy' to look at my windlass. I contacted Lewmar again for another contact but they said they only have one service agent in the south (my boats in Haslar Marina). Since then we've been muddling through; we've found that if the anchor chain is 'jiggled' whilst pressing the down button it will sometimes engage and go down, or, by pressing the up amd down buttons alternately that also works sometimes. Obviosly this is not ideal.

Things came dramatically to a head last week whilst we were trying to anchor in Newtown Creek, my wife was trying to lower the anchor using the bow switches when whilst jiggling the anchor chain got her fingers caught in the windlass. She partly severed a finger, picture the seen, I'm unable to secure the boat (my anchor wouldn't go down) there were no available mooring bouys my wife is in agony, shock and screaming...I had to attend to my wife whilst trying not to go aground. In the end I had no altrnative but to call a mayday.

Thanks to quick action by the Newtown Creek harbour master (top man) we were able to get my wife ashore to a waiting ambulance and immediate surgery. They managed to save her finger thankfully but she will be off work for about two months.

Whilst we acknowledge that windlasses and anchor chains are dangerous we felt we had no choice in experimenting in trying to get the anchor down; the alterantive was not to use the boat.

I've written to the MD of Lewmar asking him for a solution in getting my windlass fixed (or better replaced) but so far he has not replied.

Can any of you recommend someone reliable and experienced with Lewmar products who can fix our windlass???
 
Awful story - very very sorry to hear this.


Not sure if this will assist but try putting a preventer/stopper on the cable and then with the winch handle take it out of gear.

The cable will then run free.


Then reverse the proceedure and the windlass will be in gear and should pay out under power and haul back similarly.

Agree your remarks ref Davey in Newtown BTW.
 
Blimey, must have been horrendous, I hope your wife makes a full recovery.

It sounds as though the chain is twisted in the chain locker, and is binding when you try and release under power. If so it'll still jam if you release the clutch and try to dump the chain, so you may need to lift it out the locker by hand and un-twist it.

Alternatively, it may be the motor or gearbox is almost seized, in which case you need a strip down and maybe a new motor. You don't need a Lewmar agent for this, they're very simple pieces of kit and any engineer could do it for you.

When I do my briefing for people coming on our boat for the first time, I always tell them there are three main dangers, and drowning is only one of them. The other two relate to fire and mechanical equipment, like the windlass, winches, passarelle, and of course the props.
 
Very sorry to hear of your wife's injury and hope she makes full recovery

I have a V series too. You mentioned clicking. Here are 3 suggestions:

1. Sorry if this is too basic, but is the chain in the locker free to run out? When the chain is wound in, it forms a sort of pyramid of chain in the locker. In rough sea this can topple over. Then next time you try to lower the anchor, the chain is jammed under the fallen-over pyramid. The winch cannot then feed out the chain, and on mine at least it makes a loud mechanical clicking noise, repeatedly. The fix is obviously to get in the anchor locker and yank the chain around to free it all up. If this is your problem you'll also find that if you declutch the chain gypsy on the winch (by loosening 2-3 turns the nut on the top using a winch handle) the anchor chain will still not feed out.

2. The motor DC is switched by local relays and if the foot switches have bad contacts then even if you keep them pressed the relays will click and the motor will stop/start intermittently. This is a much quieter click, only heard on the foredeck

3. You say "jiggle" the chain. Where? If you are jiggling the vertical dangling part of the chain under the winch, I mean the bit of chain twixt winch and the pile of chain in the locker, then it sounds like a bad installation whereby the chain is jamming as it passes thru the deck and enters the chain gypsy. For the same reasons as 1. above, the winch makes a loud repeated click as it cant find enough torque to overcome resistance of a jammed supply of chain. This needs an engineeery person to refit or cut away the offending material or whatever. Any boat fixer could do it, you dont need a Lewmar person

There isn't quite enough info in your post but i suspect 3, and I'd get a good general boat mechanic on the job, not wait for a Lewmar person
 
As the others have said, a horrible story, and I hope she recovers quickly. I'd agree with jfm, these aren't complicated units - it's just a starter motor with a gear box plonked on top so any competent engineer should be able to have a look at it. You probably only need Lewmar if you need spares, but this sounds like crappy contacts or a messy install, so should be easy enough.

One of our deck switches went on the fritz, and it was stupidly easy to fix.
 
Frightening tale, heard of it happening before, at the risk of being too obvious have you tried lifting the chain off the gypsie and then operating the winch both up and down? if it runs freely then it's got to be the chain jammed in the locker, how old the chain? is it by any chance deformed through age, turn it around and use the other end. Hope your Mrs gets well soon, so that she can belt you for allowing her to do the man's work. Only joking.
 
Agree all that and the earlier comments. Among skipper's biggest fears with inexperienced guests on the boat should be the winches and the hydraulic passerrelle. The injuries possible by these things are terrible.
 
We carry a big pair of bolt cutters partly as a result of hearing a story from mjf about a neighbour of his getting his finger caught up in the cable on his tender crane (under load). Never had to use them on our boat, but we did use them to cut away SteveE's anchor after he went submarine cable fishing...
 
Sorry to hear about your wife's injury, hope she recovers soon.

Just for info, rather than a mayday, you could put out a "Pan Pan medico" call to summon help for a medical situation that isn't immediately life threatening, although I can imagine that in the situation you were in, summoning any kind of help was the main priority.

dv.
 
CG would almost certainly have upgraded it anyway, I think. Besides, if it's a Pan Pan Medico and you leave the helm to treat the casualty, the boat's now NUC in a confined anchorage, which would probably make it a Mayday...

Anyway, the most important thing is that he took action, got help and his wife's finger was saved.

Slightly OT, but my Mother-in-Law managed to almost completely rip off her middle finger with the chuck key on an electric drill when she hit the trigger by accident tightening the chuck. Again, they saved the finger, but my immediate reaction was, "Just my luck! Why wasn't she trying to lick the chuck tight?"
 
Just pointing out other options. A hand injury, however painful, might not be classed as life threatening. If lots of blood being lost, wife going into shock etc. then it could well be.

Also, if "no buoys were available", you could deploy some fenders and raft up alongside something else ... anything else ... I'm sure nobody would have objected to an unplanned raft up given the circumstances.
 
Any kind of urgent call was responded to. Just radio checks / routine stuff got the standard "industrial action" response.

dv.
 
I had a similar problem the other week. Went to lower the anchor and all I got on pressing up or down was a loud clicking noise. I had not turned on the trip supply switch on the electrics panel. So I assume if I had an electrical supply problem then that is what would be the result.

I would operate the winch with no chain round the gypsy and if still clicking its most likely an electrical fault. Fuse, solinode bad connection etc.

Hope you wife makes a speedy recovery. Must have been awful.

Gary
 
Yep agree, thats what i think i would have done - more hands to the pumps too!


In that particular place there is also a mid channel pile that you can pass on either hand I thought of getting hold of that with a line once when DERV and self were on unschedualled manouvers whlist still rafted together.
 
It could be that there are in fact two power supplies, just as on a car starter motor. A low power supply is provided via some relays to a solenoid on the motor, which then engages the second high power circuit. If there isn't enough juice in this second circuit to power the motor, then the solenoid disengages, but then re-engages because the low-power supply is still on, and this is the 'clicking' that is heard at the winch end (as opposed to the relays clicking at the switch) as the solenoid constantly goes back and forth. So, in short, check the connections of the high-amp circuit to the motor.
 
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