langstonelayabout
Well-Known Member
Damn. You beat me to it... :-(
Windlass dither
- Thread starter Kukri
- Start date
Damn. You beat me to it... :-(
Kukri
Well-Known Member
I have decided to kick the can down the road:
I’m going to resurrect the S-L 555. It’s a good bit of kit, and it will do for now. I will think again when I retire, by which time electric ones will be even cheaper. After all, I can use the exercise! This means that I will be sticking with 10mm chain and getting a bit more out of the CQR...
Will look at the whole subject again in a few years.
Thanks, everyone.
I’m going to resurrect the S-L 555. It’s a good bit of kit, and it will do for now. I will think again when I retire, by which time electric ones will be even cheaper. After all, I can use the exercise! This means that I will be sticking with 10mm chain and getting a bit more out of the CQR...
Will look at the whole subject again in a few years.
Thanks, everyone.
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doug748
Well-Known Member
I have just rejuvenated my mechanical windlass, at some expense.
An electrical winch looks a most useful thing. However, when you examine the installation, cost, weight and implications if the thing goes wrong, it's not, what we have learned to call, a no-brainer.
At least on a smaller boat, up to 5 tons maybe, with a spritely under 75'r.
jwilson
Well-Known Member
Electric every time: I don't like foot switches as it's too easy to tread on one accidentally and try and pull the anchor through the bow roller, also they are a bit vulnerable to water ingress. My present boat originally came with a socket in the anchor locker for a coiled-cable remote, the sockets lasted a bout 2-3 years each time before corroding badly. Made up a little in-anchor-locker switch panel, two horn or stop-button waterproof switches, an on-off waterproof switch, and a 12v LED to indicate switches active or not. Back of panel sealed in. Never use the coiled-lead remote now. Photo at https://www.yachtsnet.co.uk/windlass.jpg
The warping drum is useful: have used it to help berthing in strong off-pontoon wind - get stern line on at transom, then winch bow line in. But more often to re-reeve main halyard forward round bow roller to haul someone up mast by push-button.
The warping drum is useful: have used it to help berthing in strong off-pontoon wind - get stern line on at transom, then winch bow line in. But more often to re-reeve main halyard forward round bow roller to haul someone up mast by push-button.
mjcoon
Well-Known Member
That installation has the incidental advantage that the rubber water seals are usually in the dark. The rubber will last longer that way! Foot switches are likely to have rubber seals that are always in the sunshine (if it does!). A cover to protect from light and other damage would be good, but perhaps be a trip hazard...
Mike.
vyv_cox
Well-Known Member
I think mine may be Plastimo ones, they have a flap lid that covers the rubber. I fitted them in about 2002 and have never changed or maintained them since. Excellent kit.
Kukri
Well-Known Member
By way of a footnote.
Windlasses should always be installed with the bolts head down, so they can function as studs. Don't ask me how I know this.
Claude Whisstock managed it in 1938 on my ex boat... but that windlass was a masterpiece, by Reids of Paisley, as supplied to Claud Worth, and never needed to come off..
Windlasses should always be installed with the bolts head down, so they can function as studs. Don't ask me how I know this.
Claude Whisstock managed it in 1938 on my ex boat... but that windlass was a masterpiece, by Reids of Paisley, as supplied to Claud Worth, and never needed to come off..
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geem
Well-Known Member
We also have foot switches and we wouldnt be with out them. I fitted new ones in 2012 and have since done over 15,000 miles with no problems.
capnsensible
Well-Known Member
Foot switches. Mmm. My recently departed school yacht had them. Imagine how many times I anchored over 12 years on that boat... Foot switches useless if used by foot. Used by finger, well thats the way to make em last.
My liveonnit is for me graceful retirement. So off with the cranky old manual windlass and a shiny electric one lightens the foredeck load. Its great.
My liveonnit is for me graceful retirement. So off with the cranky old manual windlass and a shiny electric one lightens the foredeck load. Its great.
capnsensible
Well-Known Member
BTW sailing 15000 miles with foot switches isnt the problem, its when you stop and use em!! 
Fr J Hackett
Well-Known Member
Foot switch durability has to be down to installation, I used Lewmar with flip covers on two installations both mounted on wooden pads with only a small hole through the deck for the wires. I used sikaflex to seal both the pads to the deck and the foot switch to the pad and also filled the small hole with it. all the wiring was done with tinned wire heat shrink cover on soldered joints. They lasted at least 7 years whilst I had the boats and I suspect are still going strong.
The advantage of foot switches is that it leaves the hands free to wash and clean the chain as it comes inboard. I had a wired remote on one installation but never used it in anger the foot switches being far more convenient.
The advantage of foot switches is that it leaves the hands free to wash and clean the chain as it comes inboard. I had a wired remote on one installation but never used it in anger the foot switches being far more convenient.
Kukri
Well-Known Member
I have dreamed of having a wash hose hooked up to the stemhead roller somehow.
capnsensible
Well-Known Member
When it comes to durability of such things as anchor control footswitches then generally, commercial operators can offer their experiences based on far more use. This is because their identical kit gets used hundreds if not thousands of times more than on leisure yachts......
Tranona
Well-Known Member
No reason why you cannot operate a chain wash while using a radio remote to control the windlass if you have 2 hands. I operate my remote with my right hand and also use the same hand is doing anything near the chain such as clear weed or push the pile down into the locker. No danger there of the windlass working with a hand near it. Even better if the left hand was holding a hose.
GHA
Well-Known Member
When it comes to durability of such things as anchor control footswitches then generally, commercial operators can offer their experiences based on far more use. This is because their identical kit gets used hundreds if not thousands of times more than on leisure yachts......
Chatting to a cruiser just the other day about foot switches - he'd a story from the tropics where the deck got so hot somehow pressure built up inside the case enough to trip the switch and the anchor raised all by itself while he was ashore - guy next door in the anchorage saved the day but swore that the boat had a ghost!
geem
Well-Known Member
BTW sailing 15000 miles with foot switches isnt the problem, its when you stop and use em!!
Its a lot of water over the bow and the foot switches?. I suspect they stop working due to salt corrosion but since mine work i couldnt be sure. We live on the anchor so the foot switches get a regular work out
prv
Well-Known Member
The common rubber-dome type are surprisingly primitive inside - two brass prongs sticking up and a brass dish attached to the top of the dome which gets pressed down onto them. Or as happened to one of my original ones, the brass dish comes loose and floats around inside, so you can still short the prongs together if you manipulate everything just right through the rubber, but simply pressing down on top might not do anything if the loose part has slipped off to one side.
That particular failure mode is wear or mechanical damage rather than corrosion. The insides of mine (15 years' charter use) were reasonably clean, just broken.
Pete
robertj
Well-Known Member
I Have foot, cockpit, wired and wireless remote switches.
I use the wireless for initial dropping, when hooked I go forward to pay out the right amount on the foot switches.
Recovery I use the cockpit switch to get started then the wireless right up to the marker (approx 3m before anchore comes aboard) then go back to cockpit switch if on my own or go forward and use the foot switches for the finer housing of the anchor.
The wireless one I bought was a cheap eBay one, works perfectly the last three years and was a ridiculous price of just over £11. One problem with it is delay, it will keep pulling for just over a second when you release the switch, that’s why I don’t use it when housing the anchor on it’s bow roller.
If you’re going to refurbish the manual, good luck as you have missed a golden opportunity to make life easier when anchoring let alone safer if on you’re own.
Purists will rightly say that manual option is another less complicated item onboard to go wrong, that’s why they carry lead lines, a piece of flotsam for speed and sextants. Good luck
I use the wireless for initial dropping, when hooked I go forward to pay out the right amount on the foot switches.
Recovery I use the cockpit switch to get started then the wireless right up to the marker (approx 3m before anchore comes aboard) then go back to cockpit switch if on my own or go forward and use the foot switches for the finer housing of the anchor.
The wireless one I bought was a cheap eBay one, works perfectly the last three years and was a ridiculous price of just over £11. One problem with it is delay, it will keep pulling for just over a second when you release the switch, that’s why I don’t use it when housing the anchor on it’s bow roller.
If you’re going to refurbish the manual, good luck as you have missed a golden opportunity to make life easier when anchoring let alone safer if on you’re own.
Purists will rightly say that manual option is another less complicated item onboard to go wrong, that’s why they carry lead lines, a piece of flotsam for speed and sextants. Good luck
Kukri
Well-Known Member
You don't actually need a piece of flotsam for a Dutchman's log, but yes, I do carry the others. You forgot to mention the Walker Excelsior IV.
Seriously, I didn't say I was never going to go electric; I am just deferring the decision for a few more years, during which time I will become more feeble, and electrickery will have got better and cheaper.
The list of kit that I put off buying over my fifty years sailing career currently includes RDF, old Sat Nav, chart plotter, a couple of early radars, several generations of wind, etc., instruments, and I now yottigate very happily on my mobile phone... All things come to those who wait...
Babylon
Well-Known Member
Good point re clobber you've steered right past, Minn, and your call about the windlass you fit.
For my part however, and with an unstable lower-back and tight foredeck on my heavy 27footer, I went from hauling 25lbs plus 50m of chain purely by hand to a 700W low-profile Quick, with a corded remote that plugs at the foot of the mast and so reaches both the helm and the bow-roller. (Main switch just inside the companionway.)
It has transformed my anchoring since I fitted it three years ago.
For my part however, and with an unstable lower-back and tight foredeck on my heavy 27footer, I went from hauling 25lbs plus 50m of chain purely by hand to a 700W low-profile Quick, with a corded remote that plugs at the foot of the mast and so reaches both the helm and the bow-roller. (Main switch just inside the companionway.)
It has transformed my anchoring since I fitted it three years ago.