NEW ANCHOR WINDLASS

After three frustrating years of anchor windlass problems, involving money spent at marinas when we normally would have been anchoring, and money spent trying to fix the problems, even taking the boat to the door step of Ideal Windlass in Narragansett Bay, we finally got smart and put the money and effort where we should have in the first place, and bought a new Maxwell Windlass.

Any anchor windlass is going to get a major work out with our life style, which means moving constantly, usually a new anchorage every day or three, and anchoring as many times at it takes in any one spot to satisfy us that the anchor is truly and properly set. Our anchors weigh 200 pounds each and the chain is very heavy, and the boat is even heavier, close to seventy tons, so our windlass must be a workhorse.

We looked for a model that fit as closely as possible our existing holes in the deck for our hawse pipes, where the anchors are pulled in and the chain goes over the roller and travels forward to the holes where the chain runs down into the chain locker. This is contrary to how most systems are run, so we had to check out everything. We also wanted to deal with a company that was not just a one man operation, a lesson learned form our past experience. Doesn't matter how good the product is or was, eventually the one man can't keep up.

We met the salesman for Maxwell at the 2010 SSCA Gam in Melbourne this November, and his product looked like a good fit both for our existing structure, and had what we desired, a separate horizontal gypsy for each of our different sized anchor chains, and a rope windlass to sit on top of the housing of the horizontal motors. His firm, Florida Rigging was based in Riviera Beach Florida, and we decided to go Cracker Boy Marina there, and let them do the installation. Having someone experienced with the product is bound to save time and money.

While we waited for the windlass to come, we shipped off our anchors and chain for re-galvanizing. That went slick as can be, and saved a lot of money over buying new chain. So what is the outcome?

We are pleased punch! The speed of deployment and retrieval is so fast compared to the old windlass, 44 seconds instead of 2 minutes for 50 feet, that the job seems over before it's really begun. The re-falvanizing has eliminated most of the clean up. Now if we can just have a couple of trouble free years. so I can relax like I did for the eight years of infallible service, (add this to the 10 years it worked for the previous owner) we had with the old Ideal. I think this is also an example of how most all our equipment improves over the years, and if you can afford to replace any of your old stuff, chances are you will be glad you did.

PICTURES ON TOP- NOT WHERE I WANTED- ARE OF THE DECK PREPARED, THE WINDLASS BEING LIFTED ABOARD, AND DAVE AND THE INSTALLER FINISHING UP THE JOB.