Helia 44: Anchor and Windlass

[Cotemar]

Helia 44 Owners,

The 14” inch factory cleats are too far back to properly attach mooring lines to, because you have to snake the mooring lines through the seagull striker and gib furling line.

Some have pulled the lines around the outside of the bows only to find in a short amount of time that the mooring lines ride up over the bow and pull on the bow seat supports and the lines also chafe the outside of the hulls.

I have added a few dual purpose bow cleats to make it much easier to pick-up a mooring.
They will also be used as an attachment point with a soft shackles and blocks for a downwind sail.

The cleats are 12” inch Vetus Taurus (TAURUS04 )made from 316 Stainless Steel.
They were purchase from JamesTown Distributors for $74 each.
The cleat base is 6.3” x 2”. The bolts are M16 x 50mm long.

The backing plate is AL 6061 aluminum 3/8” thick x 8” Long x 4” Wide.
The backing plates were purchased from Online metals for $11 each.

[DotDun]

We added a 2nd bridle attached the same as the first. We stow it by pulling it around the beam and clipping it either to the net or the gull striker stanchion. This 'mooring' bridle is shorter than the anchor bridle and rigged to keep mooring balls away from the hulls. It stops the mooring balls from grinding a hull when current and wind are out of sync with each other.

[jbinbi]

Originally Posted by Cotemar

Helia 44 Owners,

The 14” inch factory cleats are too far back to properly attach mooring lines to, because you have to snake the mooring lines through the seagull striker and gib furling line.

Some have pulled the lines around the outside of the bows only to find in a short amount of time that the mooring lines ride up over the bow and pull on the bow seat supports and the lines also chafe the outside of the hulls.

I have added a few dual purpose bow cleats to make it much easier to pick-up a mooring.
They will also be used as an attachment point with a soft shackles and blocks for a downwind sail.

The cleats are 12” inch Vetus Taurus (TAURUS04 )made from 316 Stainless Steel.
They were purchase from JamesTown Distributors for $74 each.
The cleat base is 6.3” x 2”. The bolts are M16 x 50mm long.

The backing plate is AL 6061 aluminum 3/8” thick x 8” Long x 4” Wide.
The backing plates were purchased from Online metals for $11 each.

did you do this yourself?

did you add any fiberglass to reinforce, or just the AL plates?

My cleats are not as far back, they are under the seat. Still, I should either put a chock on and lead the line from there, or your idea of just putting a cleat on the very front. Do you get any chafe on the boat on the mooring or bridle with this location?

[Cotemar]

Originally Posted by jbinbi

did you do this yourself?

did you add any fiberglass to reinforce, or just the AL plates?

My cleats are not as far back, they are under the seat. Still, I should either put a chock on and lead the line from there, or your idea of just putting a cleat on the very front. Do you get any chafe on the boat on the mooring or bridle with this location?

Jbinbi,

We do all our own work and upgrades on our boat.

We bedded the aluminum plates with Marine-Tex Epoxy.
We bedded the cleats with clear Boat Life - Life Seal

This bow location works perfect for any mooring bridal.

Whats also nice is when you just take a lunch time mooring (short amount of time) an attach only 1 mooring line to 1 bow you do not have to worry about the mooring line pulling on your bow seat supports.

We used the large 3/8 inch thick plate, because of the upward forces on the cleat when we use a down wind sail.

The bows are very thick an re-enforced as they need to be strong for attaching the seagull striker.

[Devocean16]

Cotemar,
We just returned from seeing our new Helia in St. Thomas for the first time. I have been following many of your modifications and appreciate your advice. We are considering adding a cleat as you suggest. My question is if the 12 inch cleat is large enough to tie a mooring line on twice in the event that you don't have a spliced eye on one end.
Thanks,
s/v Counting Stars

[Cotemar]

Devocean 16,

Wellcome to the CF. We are always glad to meet new FP owners and share ideas.

These 12 inch Vetus Taurus cleats are the largest strongest cleats on the market right now.
They will do everything that the factory cleats will do and also allow you to attach your down wind sail.

[StarryHorizons]

Hello everyone.

Several months ago, our chain counter for our Quick Dylan windlass quit working. Since we were in the middle of the South Pacific at the time, I decided to wait until we were in New Zealand to mess with it.

After taking apart the upper unit, I discovered that the magnet in the gypsy had completely rusted away. Figuring that would be an easy fix, I used a substitute magnet to test, only to find that the sensor had gone bad as well. This was confirmed with a continuity test in the presence of the test magnet.

While back in the States I bought a replacement Quick Sensor kit, and upon my return to SH tested the continuity of the new sensor and bingo, it worked. Now all I had to do was try to take apart the lower unit and get access to the old sensor. Unfortunately, that part didn't go so well.

It was a major pain in the ass to get the nuts off the bolts, but I eventually managed it, only to find that the lower unit was still unwilling to come off. I've read through the Quick manual multiple times but I don't see anything obvious that should also be removed.

Can anyone help??

[Cotemar]

Originally Posted by StarryHorizons

I've read through the Quick manual multiple times but I don't see anything obvious that should also be removed.

Can anyone help??

David,

I suspect that it may just be stubborn, as you have removed the 4 bolts holding it together.

The only other thing that is giving resistance is the vertical shaft.
Clean the shaft as good as you can as it has to slide all the way through the gearbox for removal.
If you have access to some PB Blaster and spray it on the shaft, it may free that shaft up for you.

You may have to use a pry bar on the flange to deck joint to loosen any silicon bond that maybe there.

If you pry the flange to deck joint to loosen and hit the bottom of the vertical shaft with a Soft Face Dead Blow Hammer you may see it start to loosen.
.
.

[StarryHorizons]

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, no amount of Corrosion X, prying, or jolts to the vertical shaft seemed to make a difference and I ran out of time in the marina.

I've got an email in to Quick about the issue and if they come back with anything else, I'll post it here.

[captainjay]

Unfortunately what you are likely to find is that salt water got under the top assembly down into the top of the transmission and the whole mess is seized. I just replaced the one on the Beneteau. You will likely have to take wood wedges and drive them between the bottom of the deck and the transmission to get it apart. Do not be surprised if the transmission is shot. This is a real problem with these. The good news is you have the newer version with the rubber rain coat on top of the transmission. The bad news it is still stuck.

Good luck Jay

[Cotemar]

David,

OK, lets try a different approach.

1) Can you try to use 2 pry bars and pry the Windlass from above the deck.
If you apply even pressure on both pry bars, it will act as a pulley puller, pulling up.

2) If you can get a hold of a large pulley puller, then you can attach it below to pull the gearbox down.

Boaters use these pullers to pull off very large propellers, so someone may lend or rent you one in a local boatyard.
.
.

[a64pilot]

I am a huge fan of Corrosion -X myself, but as a penetrating oil, it won't hold a card to PB Blaster, get some if you can.

[captainjay]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I am a huge fan of Corrosion -X myself, but as a penetrating oil, it won't hold a card to PB Blaster, get some if you can.

If you can't get PB then mix equal parts acetone and transmission fluid. It is a pretty good substitute.

[StarryHorizons]

Thanks for all the helpful replies. We've left the marina and are back at anchor for the time being so I'm going to hold off on this project for a bit.

I did hear back from the QuickUSA technical support and he basically advised exactly what everyone is saying. It will just need quite a bit of patience and persuasion to come free.

He did also mention that the proper way for the sensor to be wired would be to have it run through one of the spare holes in the gearbox flange. If the holes don't align, he said a hole could be drilled. So perhaps for those of you with windlasses that aren't yet stuck in place, it may be worth removing the gearbox and fixing this so you don't risk a premature sensor failure.

[Cotemar]

Originally Posted by StarryHorizons

QuickUSA did also mention that the proper way for the sensor to be wired would be to have it run through one of the spare holes in the gearbox flange. If the holes don't align, he said a hole could be drilled. So perhaps for those of you with windlasses that aren't yet stuck in place, it may be worth removing the gearbox and fixing this so you don't risk a premature sensor failure.

Dave,

Glad QuickUSA told you that.
Will have to add it to my to do list before it's to late.
Will need to buy a spare sensor also.