Should I get a deck-mounted horizontal windlass?

[demonboy]

Hi all, it's been a while so...

18 months after last servicing my Quick Aries vertical windlass I am, once again, battling with stuck bearings and a shaft that will not dislodge from the gearbox. I'm on my third day of trying to remove it and it won't budge. I went through all of this a few years ago and figure the biggest draw-back of vertical windlasses is the unavoidable build-up of crap that collects down the shaft, despite regular flushing, and the inevitable corrosion.

Since it looks like I'll have to replace the gearbox anyway I was considering alternative options and figured a deck mounted horizontal windlass must surely be easier to maintain. OK, the motor is now outside and not hidden away like a vertical windlass but I'm interested to know which is a) more trouble-free and b) easier to maintain when things go wrong.

I'm limited in deck space which is one reason why perhaps the vertical one was chosen in the first place but I'm just starting to do some window shopping and research so I'm interested to hear from anyone with experience of both. It's not something I know much about apart from my experience with using and servicing the Quick.

My current set up is an Aries 1000w, 100m of 10mm chain and a 33kg Rocna.

 

[RichardS]

I can only speak about my Quick Hector 1000W horizontal deck mounted windlass, also used with 100m of 10mm and a 25kg Rocna. The windlass is under a hatch cover so is not permanently exposed but it is very easy to strip down in situ or even remove entirely and I've never had any corrosion problems. The clutch mechanism also works well if the anchor crew prefer a quick manual drop.

Richard

 

[Tranona]

There are pros and cons of both. As you say a horizontal takes up more deck space and you have to consider whether you can get both a good fall into the locker and a good lead to the bow roller. The advantage of a horizontal is that you can get a drum on the other side, and of gourde there is minimal intrusion below deck. I had | Lofrans cayman on my last boat which was excellent functionally. Drawback is that it had an aluminium casing and due to lack of care when I was chartering the boat suffered terminal corrosion of the base and all the stainless fittings corroded in. With its replacement I painted the base, left out the rubber mounting pad which held water and crucially took out all the fastenings and refitted using Duralec. With regular checking of fastenings think that would solve the problem.

Hope this helps.

 

[jonrarit]

I've got a vertical windlass. The first year it was a nightmare to remove and badly corroded ... Cast alluminium in an anchor well is never going to end well.

However I refurbed it and it's now part of my annual winterising. I can remove it in about 10 minutes, take it home, clean it up & ready for the next season. I think the secret is in doing it every winter preventing from all seizing up and corroding

JR