Managed to break my gypsy!

[CraigB]

Hi folks, a few weeks ago we anchored off Eastbourne to watch the air show. Word of warning: cover your ears when those Eurofighter jets give a blast on the afterburner a few hundred metres from you.

Anyway, to the point... I use all chain, and a Lewmar manual Anchorman (gypsy only). The anchor chain came up through the bow roller, and straight onto the gypsy, which was locked off. We had only been there a few hours. It was a little choppy, but not so bad as to prevent us pulling in a few mackeral for lunch and enjoying the show. When I came to winch the anchor up, after only several turns, the winch broke internally. The whole centre spindle sheared off completely, popping the top cover off and sending a few bits and pieces overboard.

Now, in doing a bit of research it seems that it is recommended to cleat off the anchorchain so that the strain is removed from the gypsy. Perhaps it was just another expensive lesson.

Was I just being ignorant? Would you expect this to happen? Do you all cleat off your anchorchain? How else could you secure the chain otherwise? I can imagine bits of fingers getting caught...

 

[Guest]

Yes they break. Mine was due to human strength only but with a long handle! Less said the better. Always use a chain hook with it.

 

[Robin]

Yes you should always take the load off the windlass. We use a nylon line with a rubber mooring snubber wound in it and a chain hook to attach it to the chain, the chain is allowed to hang slack with the load on the snubber line taken to a foredeck cleat over #2 bow roller.

 

[dratsea]

Sorry to read this, hope you didn't lose any of the important bits.

We normally use a chain hook. That takes strain off the gyspy but the main reason to do this is our cabin is at front end of boat and putting the load onto a short length of rope tied off to a cleat is much quieter and we get a better night's sleep.

 

[Ships_Cat]

As others have already said, but we find that we don't need a snubber and use a bollard on the foredeck between windlass and bow roller to wrap the chain around. Another alternative is to use a chain stopper (chain runs thru it, flappy thing inside locks the chain when dropped onto it).

John

 

[cindersailor]

You may be able to get the parts you need for the repair from http://www.slspares.co.uk/

 

[Toryboy1]

I have a SL Hyspeed anchor winch (and I always take the chain off the gypsy and usually use a chain hook on a nylon rode, or at least cleat off to a substantial; foredeck cleatr) but over the last couple of years, the winch has started to slip intermitantly when recovering chain under load, I guess either the chain or the sprockets are knackered. I was resigned to replacing the whole thing till I saw cindersailor's link, do folks think it is worth trying to repair- I am not sure if I could get the thing apart- the s/s screws look pretty seized in the alloy castings.

 

[cindersailor]

As far as I know SLSpares is a Paisely based one-man business run by a guy (John McMaster?) who used to work for SL in Glasgow. He bought up a lot of stock when they were taken over by Lewmar. I have infact never bought anything from him, having found what I needed elsewhere, but I spoke to him on the phone and he seemed an entirely reasonable guy. It would be worth giving him a call.

 

[CraigB]

Thanks everyone for your comments. I was considering buying a complete replacement, but I will now investigate if buying spare parts might be cheaper. In either case I'll have to uninstall and reinstall the whole thing. For now, my partner thinks it is great exercise for me to pull the anchor up by hand. I'd love to see her try to pull up 40m of chain and a 35lb CQR without an occasional cuss.

 

[chas]

I had one which was completely seized up. Some kind soul on this forum recommended that I leave it in a bucket of diesel for a few weeks before I tried to take it apart. Worked a treat.

 

[Duncantaz]

Hi Craig,

I have seen these flappy thingies recommended elsewhere and they sound like a great idea, especially for us non-windlass anchorers. Do you have any idea where one could be obtained?

 

[Toryboy1]

Given that we will have to take the thing off whatever we do, a renovation attempt seems worth while- a bucket of diesel it is!

 

[Mirelle]

I am obviously a heathen!

Ships don't take their chain off the windlass, nor do barges and smacks,and I very seldom do, although I do have a chain hook and a bit of nylon..

Mind you, we have a proper windlass, not one of those S-L / Lewmar efforts.

 

[Toryboy1]

Re: I am obviously a heathen!

But they have bloody great chain-stoppers like this-
http://www.harbourmarine.com/products/chain-stoppers.html

 

[DaveS]

Well I bought an emergency manual handle for my SL 600 from him a couple of weeks ago. Prompt service and a bit cheaper than the "official" Lewmar agent.

 

[jonlaw]

I recently bought from John at slspares, he was very very helpful.

 

[Ships_Cat]

Duncantz

I am not in the UK so cannot point to a specific supplier there but Maxwell who make the Maxwell windlasses do the flappy chain stoppers. I know Maxwell stuff is available in UK but I also assume that there are other suppliers as well (ps they are quite expensive but cheaper than a broken windlass /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif)

John