What windlass?

[Sunyata197]

I have a 36 foot (38 overall) Morgan sailboat, about 1700 pounds dry. I was going to go with a manual windlass, but am getting nervous about retrieving chain in bad weather, and I am older (62) and probably will be solo.

The thing is, the difference in price from an electric windlass that is rated for boats up to 40 feet and those over 40 feet, is remarkable...about double the price. I thought of getting the heavier windlass...but the price stops me. Are those $1100.00 electric windlasses good enough for my boat? Opinions?

[rslifkin]

Windlasses aren't really sized by boat size. They're sized by their lifting capacity.

How much chain do you carry and what size chain? How heavy an anchor do you have? And what's the deepest water you ever expect to anchor in?

[Sunyata197]

Well, using my calipers I got about .4/10ths of an inch..so I am guessing that means 3/8ths inch?

[Sunyata197]

sorry...also, 35 pounds anchor and 40 feet of chain

[tkeithlu]

Hmmm. Lots of automatic windlass systems out there; you can haul and pack your anchor from the comfort of your cockpit. But.... Guess where you are without your trusty paddle when the electrics fail?

My electric windlass isn't all that fancy - antique, actually, but there is a manual windlass right in front of it, for the obvious reason. It came in handy when we snagged an old 1" steel cable in Tampa Bay - the electric could not raise the anchor, but the manual could.

[rslifkin]

With 3/8" chain, many of the cheaper / smaller windlasses won't have a gypsy available to fit your chain even though they'd have enough pulling power. So you might be forced to go bigger just due to chain size.

Realistically, you're only looking at about 100 lbs of ground tackle, so just about any windlass will be strong enough. I'd want at least 700 lbs of pulling power to leave margin for any future growth, weight of mud on the anchor, any stuff you snag on the bottom, etc. But any windlass that will fit your chain and line will have at least that much power.

[rbk]

I wouldn’t consider one without a manual backup. Lofrans Tigress and cobra would haul your ground tackle and have manual backups. I’d go for the cobra if it works as it’s a little smaller on deck but is slightly less powerful 1500 vs 1000w

[Sunyata197]

Thanks everybody for your replies!

[Strait Shooter]

Lighthouse has a manual backup as well.

[SunnySky]

Lighthouse is a very well made windlass that works great in both electric or manual modes.



One critical side note is make sure they can provide the correct gypsies to fit your chain both now and in the future precisely (ie make sure whether your chain is 3/8" BBB vs 3/8" G40 older domestic spec vs 3/8" G43 vs some flavor of 10mm...). Some windlass designs are much more particular than others, and I can personally vouch for the Lighthouse's horizontal style being very particular (which was an absolute nightmare for me initially since the chain specs for acco 5/16" G40 high test changed awhile back, but Lighthouse great job at customer service in the end and ever since switching to a perfectly fitting 3/8 BBB chain and gypsies it's been a dream to operate.



I particularly like that Lighthouse has the ability to let out more chain manually at your own pace adjusting clutch. I'm aware that some other windlasses that have in my opinion 2 faults: 1) only giving choice between "free fall" (and one needs to be extra careful to avoid a pile of chain that might foul itself or your anchor) or letting chain out slowly using power and 2) a manual backup that is barely functional in nice conditions and comically inadequate in rougher conditions. The other pet peeves which top those tow are the drastically undersized bow rollers on most production boats and people stepping on hatches the first month after they were installed..)

[Sunyata197]

I've never heard of that brand. I will check it out. Thank you!