Anchor winches/windlasses

[Somethn_Fishy]

hi everyone,

anyone got an electric anchor windlass?

I just bought one -- i do use the anchor retreivers but hate pulling in the rope - esp anchoring and using 100m+ line.

The windlass is slow as hell but at least i can do other stuff while the anchor is coming up.

any thoughts?

Rick

[Somethn_Fishy]

PS....

Also the winch uses three strand 12mm rope. I am considering buying the cheap stuff 90c/m but there is other silver rope which cost $2.15/m.

Any one got the expensive stuff and if so is it a lot better?

Rick

[peterbo3]

Hi Rick,
Great back saver. But you may consider running the winch from a separate battery or fitting a surge/spike protector in front of your sounder, GPS & radio.
A mate of mine blew his colour sounder & GPS because they were wired into the house battery that powered his winch.

[Somethn_Fishy]

hey peterbo,


the GPS and sounder are wired from a switch box which has its own fuses, they then also have their own fuses and the whole setup is linked to my two batteries which has a 45 amp circuit breaker. the anchor windlass also has a 45 amp circuit breaker itself??

Do you think that would be enough or should i wire it directly to a spare battery?

rick

[peterbo3]

Rick,
The fuzes alone will not protect your electronics. They only function when your radio, etc starts to short out or if a bare wire comes in contact with your metal hull. They are there to protect the rest of your electrical circuit from cooking or catching fire. What stuffs sounders & the like are lots of voltage variations over a period of time from high current draw items like starter motors & winches. It is a cumulative effect. Fit a surge/spike protector in front of your fuzes. About $80 for a West Aussie model from Glascraft.
A dedicated winch battery would be good as long as you had the capability to recharge it onboard through a Perko or BMP selector switch. This would enable you to isolate the winch battery from other circuits when you were using the winch but still allow your motor to run.