Heavy duty tinned cable is not all that expensive. I bought sixty feet (30'
out, 30' back) of 1/0 tinned cable from Cobra for about $2 a foot. I did not
have to buy another battery to install in the bow and add even more weight
up forward along with the windlass, anchor and 150' of chain. The cables
distribute their weight along the length of their run to an already installed
battery. A 100 amp breaker within a foot of the battery ensures we don't have
live cables running all over the boat. And it is the battery, not the
alternator, that drives the windlass. As it happens, we have a high output
charging system but that only means you put the juice back in the battery
faster, not raise the anchor faster. As others have mentioned, use the engine
to pull the boat over the anchor and break it out, not the windlass to lift
the sea floor.

Don't know about others but ours is a Lewmar Concept 1 gypsy and captstan with
dual station/dual direction switches. The switch wiring is abominable. It is
very small guage and not tinned and handles very low current to a solenoid
that does the heavy-duty switching. The low-current wiring rapidly turns to
red dust and the switches regularly fail. Put in decent wiring, you say. The
existing wiring is integral into the switch. All I can do is keep peeling back
to bright copper and splice yet again. But I am running out of space. I'll
think of something.

The motor on this unit also failed. I had it rebuilt at a local automotive
elctrical shop. Lewmar has been less than helpful.

Gogarty wrote:

Don't know about others but ours is a Lewmar Concept 1 gypsy and captstan with
dual station/dual direction switches. The switch wiring is abominable. It is
very small guage and not tinned and handles very low current to a solenoid
that does the heavy-duty switching. The low-current wiring rapidly turns to
red dust and the switches regularly fail. Put in decent wiring, you say. The
existing wiring is integral into the switch. All I can do is keep peeling back
to bright copper and splice yet again. But I am running out of space. I'll
think of something.

Sorry to hear about your experience with the Lewmar. I have a Concept
(forget the #) windlass on my boat and have had good service from it
for 7+ years. Lewmar foot switches on the deck forward and the supplied
Lewmar 'remote' toggle switch in the cockpit.

Regarding your corrosion problem: On my boat, the connections (soldered
as I recall) for the deck switches are belowdecks (nominally dry) and
are protected with sealant (coax seal or 3M splicing compound and heat
shrink). The cockpit toggle switch is still going strong in spite of
being exposed to the inside of a locker which is usually piled with
damp and salty lines- corrosion heaven. Again, the connections (push-on
spades) are properly protected with sealant and heat shrink. The toggle
switch is a simple on-off-on momentary SPDT switch which can be
replaced with an off-the-shelf unit from any good electronics supplier.
As you say, it carries little current, so it's not a critical item. The
rubber switch covers in the foot switches seem to be holding up, but
are an obvious leak threat.

So far, using tinned (marine-grade) wiring and proper sealing of inline
connections seems to be doing the trick for me. Most of my belowdecks
branch connections (tapping into the light circuit, etc) are made via
terminal blocks, so it's easy to keep an eye on what's happening, and
troubleshoot as well.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed about the motor after your experience.
So far, the windlass has been the only Lewmar product on the boat that
hasn't turned to rubbish. Traveller and 'racing' blocks are a witches'
brew of aluminum and various tiny stainless setscrews which are totally
unsuited to marine use. No more Lewmar junk for me...except for that
great windlass!

John

In article . com,
says...



Sorry to hear about your experience with the Lewmar. I have a Concept
(forget the #) windlass on my boat and have had good service from it
for 7+ years. Lewmar foot switches on the deck forward and the supplied
Lewmar 'remote' toggle switch in the cockpit.

(Snip)

The problemn is only with the deck switches forward. The toggle switch in the
cockpit works great. But then, I supplied the wiring for that.

My wiring and motor are not below decks but in the former anchor deck locker.
Despite gaskets and various waterproofing gloop, they will not stay dry.
Tinned wire survives just fine. Plain copper does not. Do you know how much
Lewmar charges for one of those deck switches? Do you know what's inside them?
A tiny pushbutton switch about the size of a thumbnail with three tiny copper
wires potted into the bottom of the switch case. No way to bring proper wire
into the switch. A circular piece of plastic and matching foam pad. The rubber
weather cover on which you step. And the three piece hard plastic snap
together case.

But hey, making up another connection is a lot easier on my back than dragging
up a Delta 35 and 150 ft. of chain.

Another thing I noticed when I dissassembled the windlass to get the motor
fixed was that the inside of the windlass where it mates to the motor
drive-shaft was solidly packed with salt.