creekcrab
Veteran Member
Last Thursday I got a call from my neighbor. Another neighbor was fishing at our dock and noticed smoke coming out of a hatch on Paws Aboard. I ran down the dock and sure enough smoke was exiting the drain from the anchor locker. I grabbed a fire extinguisher, cut off all DC power and went into the forward stateroom and opened the anchor locker. Fortunately the anchor windlass had not ignited and the smoke was just from smoldering insulation. Smoke cleared after about 15 minutes and it appears the only damage is a burned out windlass motor. I called an electrician who is coming this week to diagnose problem. His initial thought is that a slow leak on one of the on deck switches shorted out the switch and caused the windlass motor to run until it overheated. Electrician said this happens more than one would think and a friend told me he has always disconnected on deck switches for the same reason. I was lucky the neighbor was fishing or Paws Aboard could have burned.
Lesson learned was to always turn off power to anchor windlass when leaving boat. I plan to also shut off all non-essential power in the future. Anyone else ever experience this problem?
Lesson learned was to always turn off power to anchor windlass when leaving boat. I plan to also shut off all non-essential power in the future. Anyone else ever experience this problem?