Anchor Windless

[ffheap]

Hi Folks,

I need your help. I am going to purchase a Anchor Windless, and have come across a Genius made by Quick. It seems to be a knock-off of Lemar 600. It's price is only $599.99 in the West Marine catalogue. This price includes everything except the wire.

I feel I need the horizontal windless because of the lack of space under the deck.

Is this any good, or is there a better one for less money? (To be truthful, I am a cheap yankee.)

Fred Heap

[C-Hawk]

Fred,

There arre several discussions on windless in the Anchoring Forum of the Library-- here's one

Enjoy

[Sneaks]

Fred, I have the S/L Sprint 600 and paid less than your Aries quote. Froogle it. I have it in a C-22 and carry 300 ft. of rode with 15 ft. of chain in the stock anchor "locker." You can see photos in the Jenny B album. Zero problems. Mine powers up and down though I can free-fall it if I want to get out on the bow and release the clutch.

At the time, there was a thread on here re: the Aries. I think Sea Wolf Joe has one and had to make several mods to get it to work reliably. Surely he'll step in and tell you all you need to know about that product line.

There's a difference between buying cheap and buying smart. BTDT both ways.

Don

[Salty Dog]

Fred,
I don't have a Quick windlass, but if I recall from prior threads over the years, people are much happier with the Lewmar/Simpson Lawrence windlasses compared to the Quicks. I believe the Quicks had a tendency to slip or something like that when retrieving the anchor. Consequently when I installed my windlass, I installed a Simpson Lawrence Sprint 600. Lewmar came out with their all stainless steel Pro-Series recently, which is a horizontal windlass, and they look good I think. I have an ad for West Marine in my April 2006 Motor Boating magazine that has the Lewmar windlasses at $50 off if you show them the ad. Normal price is $699, sale price with ad is $649. For $50, I'd probably get the Lewmar over the Quick. If you need the ad for the savings, send me a PM with your address and I'll mail it to you. The sale is good at both West Marine and Boat US stores until April 30, 2006.

Jack

[AnchortownJim]

Fred,

I have a Quick Aster 500 windless, used with 300' of 1/2" line and 30' of 1/4" chain rode. It works flawlessly. I love the fact that it does not take up a bunch of space on the deck, and it takes no space away from the rode locker underneath the deck.

There is whole series of photos in my photo album under the improvements section if you want to take a look. I would link it here if I could figure out how to do that, sorry.

Jim[/img]

[MOOSE]

Sea Wolf and I both bought the Quick Aires model. Joe switched to all chain to make it work. I replaced mine with a better Quick model, the Crystal, due to the willingness of my dealer to satisfy me. The Quick Crystal is a powerful windlass and I think as nicely and substantially built as its competitors. I still like the vertical models because of their smaller footprint on the deck. The downside is that, I think, a C-Dory does not have quite the drop necessary below deck to keep the rode continually "chocked" in the gypsy and so some slippage occurs from time to time. You pays your money and you takes your choice. I have no kick with the Quick I have now, however.
Al

[Sea Wolf]

Fred-

All the information about the Quick Aires reported so far is correct and there isn't anything to add, except to say that it's a very well built piece of equipment except for one flaw-the gypsy slips sometimes on rope rodes, especially at the chain/rope splice.

We got ours from Marisafe, which worked with us on the problems, and now they handle several other models of Quicks besides the Aires.

At the same time, there seem to be almost no problems with the Simpson Lawrence models, and the price advantage of the Quiciks is less than it was before.

With the all chain rode, mine is flawless, but most people won't want all chain.

Joe.

[ffheap]

Gentlemen,

Thank you for your advice. I will let you know what I will be doing, as soon as I do it.

Thank you again.

Fred Heap

PS: I started this thread because I wanted the most up-to-date info.