Friday, January 18, 2013

Windlass Installed!

Last night after work I headed to the boat to install the windlass. Deena met me there with all the items I would need to mount the windlass. I removed two of the three bronze bolts that hold the bowsprit on. I will use these to hold the windlass plate on plus I will install a 4" lag bolt in the middle of the 10 ga. stainless steel plate for additional strength. The pic below shows the game plan. You can see that I have butyl tape as the sealant.
 
The next shot shows the plate mounted. I see that a lot of people mount the windlass more to the starboard side to line up with the existing opening in the deck. I chose to move the opening in line with the bow roller. This allowed me two things, first the pull of the chain from the bow roller to the windlass down to the chain locker deck opening will all be in line. (The blue tape is covering the opening.) I plan on having an all chain rode on this side so I hope them all being in line will help. I also installed a chain pipe which you can see here. Second on the port side I will cut an opening (Nellie Jo only has one hole for the anchor for now.) for a mostly rope anchor line to go below into the rope locker.
 
 I did install a second bow roller when I replaced the bowsprit so I could carry two anchors if I want to.
Here is the final install. It was dark by the time I finished. By I'm glad to be done with this project.

 

2 comments:

  1. Superb installation, and great series of posts. My experience is that if the chain falls from windlass into chain pipe directly you're ahead of the game. But you might want to think about how you're going to make the rodes, chain or rope, fast ahead of the windlass, because I don't think you'll want the windlass taking the changing tensions of the rode while at anchor.
    As to your water pump impeller cover and the tight fit...you might want to look at those thumb screws that are advertised in the cruising mags. In my experience if you're not careful about electrolysis the screws have a tendency to degrade. And in that tight space it would be hell to have to drill one out. Just a thought.
    Excellent posts!! Deena's a saint.

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    Replies
    1. Thank Skip. I will put a chain stop or "devils claw" some where to take the load off the windlass. I was thinking of a claw that would be attached to the bottom eye of the lower bobstay fitting.I also want to try making an anchoring bridle to try when ever we get to the channel islands Right now I only have about 15' of chain on 200' of rope. I still need to buy 300' of chain at some point. It will be costly so I will make do with what I have for now.

      I agree about the impeller cover. I was looking at the thumb screws. I'll do some reasearch about the electrolysis and try to find something compatable. Thansk for the hears up.

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