Wow I can't believe it has been over two months since my last post. Things are going well as far as boat
work goes. We have sailed a little and motored a lot. I guess it's summer here in FL! I started working on the
anchor windlass. I decided to get a
manual windlass because :
A: I can't afford an
electric one (I am poor-ish)
B: Due to a bulkhead location it has to be a horizontal
windlass with no motors below
deck.
C: I have never had an
electric one and I figure if I don't know what I am missing I should survive.
I tried to locate a SL555 but had no luck and picked up a
Lofrans Royal. A little small for this application, but I could get it to with 3/8 HT
gypsy. My 5 year sailing plans will probably be
Bahamas, so mostly shallow
anchoring. Plus I am decently strong for a short guy. Hopefully it will last a few years.
The install went smooth other than cracking the
teak riser That I made from some scrap
teak that came with the boat. I need maybe another 1/4 inch of height so that did not bother me too much. All the
fiberglass stuff I needed for the install I already had so it was a low cost
project, minus the windlass. I had two holes from the old windlass. I sanded and beveled the holes. I made a three layer patch of 1808 and
epoxy for the bottom of the holes and then let it cure. I then used some leftover Coosa BW26 to replace the missing
core and Superbond
epoxy adhesive it. Then I laid another patch of 1808 on top. It came out pretty good and I did not even have to use any filler to fair the areas. I then primed them and put the nonskid on top. Then I installed the new windlass with the help of my dad.
also on a side note I finally got the
sail cover done. The company made it a bit small and it did not fit. They redid it and while it fits it seems a little small and nerdy. But They were half the
price of the other guys. This is a mega low
budget project. Well at least until I get a job. Here are the pictures.
I did not take any before pictures, so here is one from the old days. As you can see there is the windlass hole and the hole for the windlass foot switch.