Anchor winch/windless

[JJBoatman]

A fairly general question I realize,but Iam looking for some feed back on a anchor windless' . Its to be installed on a 52' ketch, replacing an aged lewmar that has been good but I believe has seen its day, several rebuilds etc. and a skipper that is not anylonger patient. Any suggestions, comments? Guess Iam wondering if there are any viable alternatives to another Lewmar, need a full service, up and down etc. Thanks

[sailandoar]

Powered by Swedish steam. Not much to go wrong. Bit slow. Still available. We like ours.

http://www.lunenburgfoundry.com/
They have redone thier web site and at the moment do not show pics of the various windlass models.

[sailingdog]

It would help to know which Lewmar you are trying to replace. I would guess that you have a power windlass, especially given the size of the ground tackle that you should be using on a boat that size.

Horizontal windlasses, like the manual one shown above are often easier to install than vertical windlasses, but are generally less secure, as the gypsy only grabs 90 degrees of chain versus 180 on a vertical windlass, and less flexible, as they can only be used for pulling up the rode, where a vertical windlass can often be used to help haul someone up the mast, etc. This is something you should probably consider, while you're thinking about replacement windlasses.

Practical Sailor had a two-part series of articles last year on a Windlasses that might be worth checking out. The first part dealt with windlasses below $1000 and the second with windlasses above $1000 IIRC. Lewmar did fairly well in the comparisons IIRC.

[sailandoar]

I agree with 'sailingdog' about the utility and versatility of vertical axis windlasses but consider this=>. We have a HUGE and expensive snatch block to create a fair lead to the Lunenburg horizontal capstain and with that and a few other smaller snatch blocks we can take any line from any where. A vertical capstain might seem to be much more flexible but the lead still MUST be adjusted to a fair angle or the line will overwrap and jam. OOPS!!! So not much changes between horizontal and vertical EXCEPT in the case of very large vessels wiht a large clear deck area where many lines are lead in at deck level from various places. On smaller vessels there is not a large clear space where lines can come to the windlass from various points and almost all the lines still have to be lead thru snatch blocks/fair-leads. We have found that the deck windlass is to slow for all but the really dead lift heavy pulling and so have a removable bollard mounted windlass for the 'easy stuff' and notice it is vertical, however it can still be a ROYAL PAIN because unless the lead is just right it overruns and so snatch blocks are still called for to adjust the lead. We do love having the small windlass forward and also have one mounted aft. They are old single speed bronze and in my dreams they would be multi speed. In fact with a HD multi speed sheet winch one can do 99% of all line pulling in a safe and conveinient manner. Chain rode is a limitation unless you are clever enough to build or modify the sheet winch drum to have a chan gypsy. Even without the chain gypsy one can pull chain the old fashioned way, aft along the deck with winch or block-tackle. You stopper it between pulls while resetting the chain hook or rolling hitch every 20 to 30 feet depending on the leangth of clear space on deck to pull. We have a little over 30'.

[sailingdog]

If you have a chain rode, a chain stopper or pawl is probably a good idea.

sailandoar's idea of using snatch blocks to route the rope is a pretty good one...