Windlass Installation advice

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mully

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I have recently purchased a new CDory 22 cruiser (2026) and I’m installing a Lewmar ProSeries 700 windlass. I’d value some opinions on which battery to pull power from….I’ve seen conflicting info on house and starting. My house battery will have very few other loads to support, so I was leaning towards that.

I’m also not sure of the best way to deal with the uneven deck….the windlass will span an area that is smooth and an area that has tread, which raises the deck surface about 1/8” and is very textured I’ve seen videos when people have sanded through the tread to make it even, but I can also see the argument for shimming the lower surface and sealing everything very well.
 
Here are some previous comments from Thataway Bob that I followed: “The windlass should be wired to the engine start battery for several reasons. One is that you should always have the engine running when using the windlass--drive the boat to where the bow is directly over the anchor, and take up the slack... Use the boat to break out the anchor, then pull the anchor up. Two; Wiring it to the house, means it might be depleted during the prior night or nights.”

Have you considered the GX2 drum winch before you mount the Lewmar? Some advantages are you can carry much more rode and chain, especially with dinema. It keeps all the mess out of your anchor locker and frees up the space in the anchor locker. If you use 8 plait rode on the Lewmar, at some point the gypsy will not pick up the splice between the 8 plait and the chain. That will never be a problem with the drum winch. My only experience is with the Lewmar profish 700. It is high quality, easy to service and reliable, yet if I were to do it over, I would install the drum winch. Ken
 
mully said:
I’m also not sure of the best way to deal with the uneven deck….the windlass will span an area that is smooth and an area that has tread, which raises the deck surface about 1/8” and is very textured I’ve seen videos when people have sanded through the tread to make it even, but I can also see the argument for shimming the lower surface and sealing everything very well.
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I have ground the non skid down to be even with the smooth surface. If anything were to be "shimed", I would lay down glass and resin exactly under the pattern of the windlass. I am not a fan of leaving a surface filled with an adhesive/filler such as 4200 or 5200. Be sure and put either fender washers or better an aluminum plate to back the bolt pattern of the windlass.
 
thataway said:
I have ground the non skid down to be even with the smooth surface. If anything were to be "shimed", I would lay down glass and resin exactly under the pattern of the windlass. I am not a fan of leaving a surface filled with an adhesive/filler such as 4200 or 5200. Be sure and put either fender washers or better an aluminum plate to back the bolt pattern of the windlass.
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Thank you for the reply….grinding the deck to accommodate the windlass seems like the best option to me too.
 
have you seen justins video? he does a great job with his install.


 
Hi Mully,

Be sure to get the Lewmar 700 pro FREEFALL. The freefall only needs about 2 seconds of power to loosen the clutch when your putting the anchor down and really don't want to be burning through your battery capacity because you'll be shutting the engine down soon. In this case the starting battery is great to hook too. But it all depends on your electrical system. For instance I have a 314 LiFePo4 mini in the back locker with my starting battery. It's my house battery and is totally separate from the starting battery and hooked to a 425W solar panel so for me, since I already had a #2 cable going to the helm from it, that's what I use. The starting battery ONLY goes to the engine and not to the house.

As far as the deck, I used a 1/2" piece of starboard because I also had to cover the old Hawespipe hole so this served dual purposes for me and worked well. I also didn't cut a circular 3" hole as it's not needed. I cut out only the hole made by the windlass chain hole + a 1/4"...

Oh, and the easy way to seal the edges of the hole is to use a router with a 1/2" tall side cuting bit and then fill in the gap with thickened epoxy.
 
I have used both the free fall and power down Lewmar 700. I much perfer the standard power down, because it can be totally controlled at the helm. I Drop the anchor to the bottom, note which way the wind or current will push or pull the boat. Then I back down slowly, paying out the line with the windlass power, and then stopping at 3x the scope to take the line gently tight, to see if the anchor is setting. It if appears to be setting, then back down to 7: 1 scope, and gradually increase stern power to set the anchor. If necessary by the swing and nearby boats, I go to the 3:1 scope. The power used by gently powering the anchor out in much less than raising the anchor, and any depleation of the starting battery is minimal. With thounds of anchoring, many different boats, in most of the seabottoms you may find anywhere in the World, I have used this technique. I use this technique when possible. There are a few windlasses which are manual. For example in our 62 footer, we charried 3 anchors on the bow sprit: 70# Danforth HT, 70# CQR Plow, and 90# Fisherman (hand forged by a Turkish blacksmith as I watched). We had a manual windlass for two rodes, and an electric windlass with a chain and a rope Gypsy on opposite sides of the gear box. (That electric windlass had its own 200 amp hour battery bank, just below the windlass to achieve the 3500 lb rated pull of that beast.

For fishing a reef, the rapid descent with the free fall is a good choice. Be aware that with free fall, the chain may descend faster than the anchor, and the can (I have seen it happen) can foul the anchor flukes. This is most likely to happen with a Fortress, Guardian or Danforth/Danfroth pattern, anchT
 
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thataway said:
I have used both the free fall and power down Lewmar 700. I much perfer the standard power down, because it can be totally controlled at the helm. I Drop the anchor to the bottom, note which way the wind or current will push or pull the boat. Then I back down slowly, paying out the line with the windlass power, and then stopping at 3x the scope to take the line gently tight, to see if the anchor is setting. It if appears to be setting, then back down to 7: 1 scope, and gradually increase stern power to set the anchor. If necessary by the swing and nearby boats, I go to the 3:1 scope. The power used by gently powering the anchor out in much less than raising the anchor, and any depleation of the starting battery is minimal. With thounds of anchoring, many different boats, in most of the seabottoms you may find anywhere in the World, I have used this technique. I use this technique when possible. There are a few windlasses which are manual. For example in our 62 footer, we charried 3 anchors on the bow sprit: 70# Danforth HT, 70# CQR Plow, and 90# Fisherman (hand forged by a Turkish blacksmith as I watched). We had a manual windlass for two rodes, and an electric windlass with a chain and a rope Gypsy on opposite sides of the gear box. (That electric windlass had its own 200 amp hour battery bank, just below the windlass to achieve the 3500 lb rated pull of that beast.

For fishing a reef, the rapid descent with the free fall is a good choice. Be aware that with free fall, the chain may descend faster than the anchor, and the can (I have seen it happen) can foul the anchor flukes. This is most likely to happen with a Fortress, Guardian or Danforth/Danfroth pattern, anchT
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Not arguing here, just pointing out different strokes for different folks... Foul the anchor flute? Of a Danforth type anchor possible, but then I wouldn't use a Danforth anchor as my main anchor on any boat that is doing any overnights. No way! Danforth types are well known for pulling out when the wind turns 180 and then never being able to reset. My 1/4" chain will never beat my 17 pound Mantus on my 22 cruiser to the bottom and foul it. But I also anchor very differently than you so you're not wrong and neither am I. I determine wind and current well before I anchor and then head upwind far enough so that when I've let out all of my anchor chain to its proper scope and put my snubber on, I'll have the boat right where I want her for the night. When letting the anchor down I'm already backing faster than slow, let the anchor go and then put the boat in neutral once half my scope is out and usually the boat is still moving backward when the anchor line goes taut to set the hook a little bit. After which I back down on the anchor and I sleep great. There is no joy getting up in the middle of the night when it's blowing 50 or more and re-seting the hook!

Anyhow, all I'm saying is that you are right. For your style of anchoring the Freefall is not the right choice, for mine it works great and I've literally anchored thousands of times cruising the east coast and actually in the Bahamas cruising for about 12 years cumulatively, often times anchoring multiple times a day! I've put them on 3 of my Gemini's, my Motorcat 30, my Alward 25 and my Island Packet 29. The rest of the boats were too big for the 700 or 1000 Freefall. Never had any issues yet...
 
Oh, but the whole reason that I came here to post tonight is that I'm in the Key's right now and I was fishing in the mangroves putting down my anchor and pulling it up several times. I wanted to warn you that if you have a older 22 cruiser with only a lower anchor locker panel, be prepared to design and fill in the top half with a removable water/mud tight panel or door or you will NOT be happy! I'm writing this in the laundry room at the marina and am only happy that I always use waterproof mattress covers underneath the sheets, usually just so you don't get condensation between your mattress and the fiberglass, but this time it kept the mattress clean as well...
 
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