Hi, I inherited a
Simpson Lawrence Hyspeed 510
Windlass on an old 1976
Islander 36 that I bought sight unseen in The
Med.
The "UP" function works fine. I insert the bar, rock fore and aft, and the
anchor comes up eventually (really I prefer to do it by hand in depths up to 20 feet).
What does not
work is the
clutch function. I stick the bar in, and the
clutch nut does not move.
Fortunately, now matter how the pawl is set, the
windlass will never rotate such that the chain pays out. I always have to deploy the
anchor by letting the chain slip through my palms.
My best guess is that the clutch is frozen in a locked state. Corroded shut, maybe. It's not a terrible situation. The important function, retrieving the anchor, works as it should. But it would be nice to be able to pay out the chain as designed.
Does this indicate a clear and fixable problem? I'm a bit cautious to take the thing apart, which may not even be possible without breaking it. Further, with the
boat an ocean away all
winter, I don't have a whole lot of time for troubleshooting, and part availability is very limited in
Croatia.
Thanks,
Andrew
San Francisco
s/v Geja
http://sailgeja.com/