Windlass motor fan cooling

[noelex 77]

I am installing a new vertical anchor winch. It's larger than needed, but it's still great to have as much reserve as possible, say with an engine failure in a gale when you want to use the anchor winch to pull the boat up to the a anchor.
I am thinking of installing a small bilge blower to cool the anchor winch motor and gearbox when in use. It should help both the life of the motor and the ability to to operate on a longer duty cycle.
It's only a small additional cost and will only draw 3a or so. Anyway I have never seen this done so I though I would throw the idea to the forum for opinions.

[Nemo55]

Without air vanes (heat sink) on the body of the motor or Transmission,,a fan blowing across will not help very much.
Think of a tow truck, have you ever seen an air cooled winch on one?
The winch will be made to bear up i think,,as long as its not some cheap Chinese piece of crap.

[atoll]

cant do any harm,though a bigger windlass is going to run cooler if it is oversized for the job.seems like over kill.

salt water kills more windlasses than overheating!!

[John A]

This begs the question.
Why do you want to leave an anchorage during gale force winds?

[Cheechako]

I doubt it will help much. In that situation, run the windlass in bursts rather than continuously. Often overheating the wiring is the issue... kinda like cranking the engine starter continuously...

I've had to depart an anchorage a couple times in 30 knots of wind. Wind clocked and we were hobbyhorsing on a lee shore in 4-6 foot wind waves. I always write down the exit bearing. Sailing at sea in that is much easier than breaking gear and ending up on the beach.... would have been very tough with no engine though....

[noelex 77]

Thanks for all the replies.
I have fitted a fan. An Atwood 4000 bilge blower. It puts out a lot of air. It's like putting your hand out of the window in a car on the freeway.
I am still on the hard. Launch tomorrow
I have pulled up the new chain a few times and the motor temperature is noticeably lower with the fan going. Hauling up the chain and anchor only 4-5m with no force is not much of a test of an anchor winch, but if keeps the temperature lower with this low load, it should make more difference when the motor is near its limits.
Having spent a few days curled up in the anchor locker, installing the new winch, I can testify it gets hot in there. There is is no deck insulation in the anchor locker unlike the rest of the boat.
The blower was cheap and simple to install. The fan noise has the added benefit that it alerts me if I forget to turn the anchor winch off.