Anchor Windlass

Anchor Windlass - 2013

Anchor windlass sat on the bench in the shop till now.. See previous details that show how it was converted and put together. See previous page in 2011.

I really wanted to get this done. If we need to get it in the water we need the ground tackle working. It weighs about 100 pounds, so I lifted it one step at a time up the gangway to the last step. Then I got an old piece of carpet and laid it on the railing. I then heaved the heavy rascal up on the railing and scooted it up to the bow. Because the windlass is longer then before I had to move the whole assembly forward. You can see the old mounting hole in back of the bolt above. So this took a bunch of days building all new mounting plates that you see here.	Now for the wiring part. First I cut a round hole in a nice piece of mahogany. Then I put the piece on the deck and drilled into the deck which made sure I was drilling at the proper angle. I am going to feed all the wires through the copper pipe.


Here is what it looks like underneath and only the first cable pulled through. The foam means I used good ol' gorilla glue.	Here it is all done. Sweet yes !.


Here are the 0/2 cables coming into the V-Berth area. I build the box to fit the Odyssey battery. The 2 slots on the sides allow the winch relay panel to slide in.	Here is the relay winch control panel in place. Now to wire it up. I build this little panel down in Arizona.


All Wired up ready to test.	Here's a video of the first start up.


Happy as a little piggy in the mud, I ran the Winch to put all the chain back in the locker. Whoops ! Danger Will Robinson ! The chain stayed in the gypsy (Bob Cat) and attempted to wrap itself around itself. Yike! Back to the drawing board. It seems like I need metal finger in there to force the chain out of the gypsy.	Step one is to build a mount for the metal bracket, all coated and ready to mount.


I am using all chain and I have color coated it in 50' lengths. I attached the legend here so I know how much chain is deployed. With rope you need a 4:1 scope and with all chain as I have done we could use a 3:1 and less as we go deeper. As for using all chain, the "Spray" cares not about how much weight is in the bow.	New bar in place ready to test.


Anchor now runs out of the gypsy and down into the anchor locker like it should. Next is to trim it up if necessary and then paint it. After painting I'll secure it with 3/8" lag bolts.