Advancing years and being spoiled by an electric
windlass on a charter boat in Tahiti resulted in an impulse buy of a
Lofrans Project 1000 electric windlass at the West Coast Boat Show
in April 2009.
And as Luigi pointed out yesterday (June 4), this
is the seventh anniversary of our first Pacific Crossing....
I'm writing this as the project is progressing, so I will have
some recollection of the effort involved.
There was quite a bit of preparation required.
- the old Simpson Lawrence HySpeed manual windlass had to be
removed
- the chain drop hole in the deck used by the S-L HySpeed had to
be filled--we used 3M filler atop a fiberglass tape base--then
faired and sanded flush with the deck
- the Lofrans translation from Italian to English had to be
translated to Understandable English (fortunately, Fabio
reads Italian)
- the anchor locker had to be reshaped into a triangle. This
required 'glassing in a shelf strong enough to support the weight
of the 100' chain. A quick trip to Art Nelson Sailmakers in
Honolulu for a West System Epoxy kit took care of that.
- four 2 ½" holes had to be cut into the deck to
provide for the shaft, chain drop hole, and the two foot switches
(one trip to Sears to get a 2 ½" hole saw). Who knew
Balsa Wood was so damned hard to cut???
- the chain drop hole had to have a 45° bevel on the leading
edge (who knows why)
- all holes needed to be sealed with epoxy
- a backing plate had to be frabricated to spread the load over
the foredeck (we used ½" StarBoard)
- the mechanicals had to be installed (boy, do I feel every
minute of that effort). Imagine cramming yourself into an anchor
locker, hoistng a 19kg motor over your head
Now, we've realized that the anchor drags along
the deck so it (the anchor) will have to be inclined a bit. We've
decided on a fairlead roller to do that, and Lofrans says that the
declination of the chain can be as much as five degrees. Not a big
deal, but just one more thing...(and another hundred bucks)
I've just spent the entire day on my back in the
anchor locker (not a good position) fitting the motor to the
headpiece. |