There is hardly a worse place on a boat to place electrical wiring than
on and around a bow-mounted windlass. It's just not possible to make
things completely watertight and salt water will get at the windlass and
the wiring. Lewmar ought to know that. Then why is it that all the wiring
that comes with the windlass and its accessories, i.e., deck switches and
overheat cutout to fuse, is small guage and non-tinned? Even tinned
marine grade wiring has a problem in this environment. But the non-tinned
stuff rapidly turns to a red powder and nothing works. The corrosion is
so bad that cutting the wires all the way back to the switches revealed
no bright copper at all. I replaced the wires with larger gauge tinned
wire as best I could but I am still stuck with the stub of the original
wire as it comes out of the switches and motor.

Really dumb design.