In article , DSK
wrote:

I want to install a windlass, but cabling it from my batteries with
large wires is a major job.

I am thinking of placing a dedicated battery up with the windlass and
running smaller wires from the main bank where the charger lives



Putting in a secondary battery is also a major job... if you do it right.

Gogarty wrote:
Though it is done, most responders argue against a dedicated battery near
the
windlass. I agree. Buy and run the heavy cable. I used 1/0 red and black
marine grade (tinned) from Cobra. Thirty feet of each at $2.00 a foot in
1999.
You save the weight of a bettery in the bow where you don't want too much
weigfht and while the cable may weigh as much or more, the weignt is
distributed through the boat and is down low.

The cable doesn't present the maintenance & replacement issues that a
battery does, either.

.... The cable is direct connected to
the starting battery with a 100 amp breaker as close to the battery as
possible and accessible in the cabin. The breaker is in fact the switch. I
also ran three-part wire to an up/down switch in the cockpit in addition to
the foot switches on the deck next to the windlass.

That's a good idea. I'm planning on putting in a wireless remote for our
windlass, but that'a 'someday' project.

I'm planning on fitting a hydraulic winch and save myself a lot of
grief with electrics, if I need anything other than a manual windlass.
I have 2 or 3 hydraulic pot haulers about the place already and the
components aren't all that expensive in the scheme of things. Hydraulic
pump run via 12V electric clutch off the main engine.

Not for everyone but I have the tools to do it right. Can have remotes
at the wheel then. Fitting a wireless remote seems like something
guaranteed to go wrong.

PDW