DIY ? Oh my lord !!

[tdw]

You know sometimes you cannot take a trick. A year or so back the windlass on the Womboat started to act up. Felt a bit like a slipping clutch, everything was going around , making all the right noises but not a lot of movement of chain and anchor. Got to the stage where it was semi manual, had to put the winch handle in and give it a bit of assistance. Boring boring boring but there you go.

This all went down during a bit of a summer cruise so I waited till we were home and hauled the damn thing out of the boat, took it into the workshop at my place of business and pulled the thing apart. Well 'pulled' might not be the right word....more like immersed in a bucket of gunk guaranteed to loosen the most stubborn of corroded metals for a couple of days, then beat cursed swore bashed skinned knuckles damned the name of Muir anchor windlasses to hell then beat cursed and swore some more until finally........one last bash and the sucker came apart.

As the saying goes " a kiss on the cheek may be quite continental but tactical nuclear weapons are a man's best friend"

Ah.

Interesting.

Water as a gearbox lubricant.......hadn't seen that one before......

Now, I did mention Muir Anchor Windlass Company in a somewhat defamatory fashion just now but quite obviously this problem was not of their making , more down to lack of maintenance by previous owner of Womboat. To give Muir's their due, they were bloody helpful in getting me new gearbox for what is a discontinued line and it must be admitted they did say to me that in their experience when the gearbox lets loose the motor will not be far behind. Hey, they even suggested I might consider that simply buying one of their brand new models might not be such a bad idea either.

Ptooey.....why there ain't nothing wrong with the motor, strong as an Ox. I can tell when someone is trying to drum up business. I wasn't born yesterday you know !!

So.....buy gearbox, fit gearbox, re install windlass, feel a right cocky bustard when it fires up, readily hauling chain and anchor from the deep for quite some few months, until......

whirring noises.....no chain a rising nuffink.......shite !!

Haul anchor up by hand.....less than impressed.

Oh joy.....back down below, pull windlass out of boat, once more pull apart, easy this time and easy to find problem.....sleeve where motor unites with gearbox......shredded....what once was a solid tube is now nothing more than little bits of twisted metal.

Hello...Muirs.

Give me one of these please......Ah, no says Muirs cos that not ours. What says I ? Its a mongrel they said.....someone's tried to save the cost of of genuine motor by using a substitute but had to have an adaptor sleeve made up to get it to fit. Buy a new motor they said...or if you must, go to an engineering shop and get them to make you up a new adpator.

Why do I never learn......$160.00 later I have three new adaptors (cost that much for one or three so might as well have a spare eh ?) and back to boat we go. Install windlass. Brilliant. Damn I am good. New windlass my arse.

Months pass......

Let me be plain about this......hauling up 35 metres of chain plus anchor plus mud is getting old......

Once more dear friends....out she comes......apart she comes......(this is getting really easy now).....hmmm.....so that's what an electric motor looks like after it has eaten itself......

Hello Muirs !! I'm beginning to supect that they are enjoying this. They certainly recognise my voice.

Yesterday we finally got the bustard back into the boat. It has now cost me only marginally less than had I taken Muir's original advice and simply bought a brand new one and that's having done all the work myself. The Wombette and I are not talking, the local painted ladies have lodged a complaint about my language, my manicure is but a shadow of its admittedly pretty dodgey former self, I swear you can see bone at the bottom of the craters in my fingers and I still have a 20 year old windlass. Muirs, god bless their cotton sox have not sounded even the least bit smug though they deserve to be feeling it.

Nah, I'm sorry....a lifetime of pulling things apart and rebuildling the buggers is coming to an end. From here on in, if it breaks I'm buying a new one.

[pegasus1457]

Oh, wombat, I was shedding tears as I read your account of the windlass misadventure.

But, ashamed to say, they were tears of mirth. I was laughing so hard I ..
never mind.

Not that you don't deserve sympathy, but your account just tickled my funny bone.

Carry on wombat ..

Pegasus

[smackdaddy]

A stiff whiskey (in a pint glass) will ease the pain TD. You are one determined dude. And that, my good man, I do admire!

May you get another 20 out of that frankenbustard!

[sailaway21]

It was the soaking it in gunk that did it. If you hadn't taken that rational course of action you'd have sooner encountered a situation where, "if it doesn't move, force it. If it breaks, it needed replacing anyway!".

My commiserations. The most definite no in life is, other than the one Debbie G. gave me 37 years and 2 months ago, no good deed goes unpunished. (g)

[alanporter]

After reading your tale of woe, it's easy to tell you are English ! No one else talks like that ! Cheers, Mate !

[Sailormann]

After reading your tale of woe, it's easy to tell you are English ! No one else talks like that ! Cheers, Mate

You'd best apologise before he reads that...he's an Aussie. Same as a Brit but they go for the post-pubescent rather than the prepubescent..

[tdw]

Mr Porter you are almost correct in that me muvva is English loik.....born in London she was....but most importantly of good Yorkshire stock.

Most of me is stolidly Orstrylian but mixed in there are Irish and even (dare I say it) American.....USAian.....whispers quietly so no one can here...Bostonian genes as well.

Hey Sway....who do the Bostonians vote for ? Please don't tell me I come from good Republican stock....please.....

and thank you for setting the record straight Mr Sailorman....

ps - Sway , you are of course correct...softening the sucker up was my big mistake...not the manly thing to do really....should've gone straight in for the kill.

[danjarch]

We're laughing with you, mate, not at you. I'm currently on my third repair of the house air conditioner in a year. The house doesn't have gas yet but it's on the street but I don't want to spend the money piping the house so just replace the heat strips, six months later just replace the coils, three months and I just ordered a new condenser fan motor. Oh well should last until I'm ready to pipe for gas right?

[sailaway21]

Ouch!
My marsupial friend will be pleased to note that Bostonian's vote reliably Democrat though there is some doubt as to whether this out of political philosophy or the entrenched Democrat machine that continues to bring home the bacon. One of their most famous politicians, Tip O'Neil, said that, "all politics are local".

Now you can make the case that your average Boston longshoreman of Irish descent is as conservative in his personal views as the next American but votes Democrat because, like New Yorker's, he knows where his bread is buttered. Of course, if you get out to any of the many institutions of higher learning in the area, they're as looney left as bedbugs in a commune. It's a fine town once you get past the native's two hundred odd year chip on their shoulder over something to do with not being New York. I think the joke about Irish Alzheimer's applies. Irish Alzheimer's is when you know you hate the SOB but can't remember why. (g)

[floatsome]

The older I get, the more money I waste buying a better bit of kit the second or third time because I went cheap the first time or two. Great story, good chuckle over morning coffee.