Tapio Sokura wrote in news:nTqmg.7846$9l4.4042
@reader1.news.jippii.net:

Have you thought about running just a relay control cable between the
control panel and the windlass power cable near the battery? So you'd
have the controls up and the actual relay would be down there in the
path of the windlass power cable. The relay control cables would carry
a
current of under one amp, so they can be something like 18 AWG. But in
this case you should have a circuit breaker "down there" for the
windlass as it bypasses the circuit breaker you mentioned. Maybe this
arrangement is not worth the trouble.


I wholeheartedly agree with Tapio. You can buy 12V contactors, starter
solenoids from any auto parts store. They are completely sealed and
explosion proof as they are used in engine compartments of Ford
Exploders. S/V Lionheart uses one, rated at 200A I think, for the master
electronics power bus contactor. A continuous-duty contactor switches
off a separate power bus that all our electronics is connected to, except
the emergency secondary Icom M59 VHF, because my captain can't remember
to shut everything down. Now he doesn't have to, just push in the push-
pull switch next to the big red light staring him in the face. That
works great!

"Lionheart" had electric roller furling for its headsail when it was new,
but the sea, of course, soon consumed the furler in the spray. Up in the
portside cabinet in the V-berth were 3 contactors like this hooked to a
12V bus back to the main breaker panel. Her anchor winch only went one
way. You released the clutch to pay out the all-chain rode. During
taking it apart for maintenance, I noticed the local footswitch, SPST,
had extra wires to the drive motor that went nowhere. Experimenting with
them, I found the motor had forward and reverse windings! So, I wired
the motor to the furler's existing contactors, and left the original one-
way up switch on the winch's case hooked up, too. Now, you can pay out
more rode or wind it in by moving the old furler's control switch on-off-
on back in the center cockpit (half naked in the middle of the night when
a storm unexpectedly rears its ugly head, for instance...(c No more
clamoring around in the dark in your underwear cursing the clutch release
toggle that's stuck because of the rode's pressure jerking on it in the
waves. Just press the button...(c;

Don't route the windlass' heavy cable to your control point. Those
starter contactors are all sealed and will last your lifetime doing it
remotely with a tiny switch switching the coils.