Up only type windlass

meridian · Jul 10, 2012

For those of you that have had an UP-ONLY type windless, how did you cope with dropping the hook? I have found it can get away from you if you are not careful. I guess one option would be to use the drum portion although I would expect the chain to eat that up.

I have a Powerwinch gypsy/drum UP-ONLY windless on my new to me 36’ Albin with 90’chain and 100’ rope rode with a 35# CQR. There is no manual clutch to allow for using the windless and no free-fall option.This one still runs well and others have used it for 30 years so I’d rather keep it for now.

Gulfstar 36 · Jul 10, 2012

I have one of these and it was mounted so I could not use chain. The boat came with a well-worn 160' of line and 6' of chain. I replaced it with 50' of chain and 150' of 8 plait. But once I found out I could not hoist the chain I loped 40' off. I guess it is backwards. For the bay I only use 10' of chain to I drop and hoist by hand.

Capn Craig · Jul 10, 2012

I have a up only Ideal windless with about 75 feet of 5/16 BB chain and a 27 lb anchor. I am able to lower it by hand but it is heavy with 50' of chain out. Fortunately in my case, the Mississippi is seldom over 20' deep anyplace I want to anchor so I never experience the wieght of more than the anchor and 20' or less chain. It's a nuisance but not a show stopper. The Admiral can't do it though.
It is run by a DC motor so I see no reason why reversing the polarity on the motor wouldn't make it run backward. Mechanically I see no reason why it wouldn't function in reverse either. I haven't tried it on an experimental basis to prove my theory as I have far more higher priority projects. My tentitive plan would add either a double pole double throw solonoid or a second solonoid to control the ground in the up direction and a second set of two soloniods for the down direction. I would add a second foot switch thru the deck. Important Safety Note, dont step on both switches at the same time. And install and /or check that the existing breaker is up to the task if some fool does step on both simultaneously.
Anybody ever do or try such a thing?

Gulfstar 36 · Jul 10, 2012

I tried the reversing trick on my Powerwinch and it just locked up.

Capn Craig said:
I have a up only Ideal windless with about 75 feet of 5/16 BB chain and a 27 lb anchor. I am able to lower it by hand but it is heavy with 50' of chain out. Fortunately in my case, the Mississippi is seldom over 20' deep anyplace I want to anchor so I never experience the wieght of more than the anchor and 20' or less chain. It's a nuisance but not a show stopper. The Admiral can't do it though.
It is run by a DC motor so I see no reason why reversing the polarity on the motor wouldn't make it run backward. Mechanically I see no reason why it wouldn't function in reverse either. I haven't tried it on an experimental basis to prove my theory as I have far more higher priority projects. My tentitive plan would add either a double pole double throw solonoid or a second solonoid to control the ground in the up direction and a second set of two soloniods for the down direction. I would add a second foot switch thru the deck. Important Safety Note, dont step on both switches at the same time. And install and /or check that the existing breaker is up to the task if some fool does step on both simultaneously.
Anybody ever do or try such a thing?

twiisted71 · Jul 10, 2012

I don't have a windlass on this boat, but. ....I grew up on shrimp boats that used the cat head on the net winch to also pull the anchor when needed. Here's the simple way. Get a Fortress/Guardian aluminum anchor and about 20' of chain, the rest of the rode can be rope. Mark your rope in 25' increments so that you can reef as much out as you think you'll need to provide adequate scope and cleat it off. This way it can't get away from you and you should be able to lower the anchor and chain pretty easily by hand and you can throw a coil around the cathead before you drop the anchor and chain to control the speed of the freefall by hand if you're in really deep water. Hope this is clear as sometimes its hard for me to write what I'm trying to say.

bobofthenorth · Jul 10, 2012

We have a Maxwell vertical capstan up only. I don't know what model. I have exactly the opposite problem. If my windlass hasn't been used for a month or so it becomes unwilling to allow the chain to freefall. I've taken it apart, greased everything that I could, cursed it and eventually decided that is just the way it is. After we have dropped the anchor a few times by manually dragging the chain out of the locker it eventually decides that it can (grudgingly) allow the chain to run out, most of the time.

If money was unlimited I'd have one, preferably hydraulic, that powered in both directions. But money is not unlimited and when this one works it works reasonably well. We can control the speed of the free fall by tightening the capstan down against its friction clutch so when the chain does decide to come out we can control it reasonably well.

Marin · Jul 10, 2012

Our boat came with a large, no-name, power-up only windlass (second photo) It was fitted with a friction clutch controlled by a handwheel. So to deploy the anchor whoever was at the windlass simply controlled the speed of the chain going out with the handwheel. No problem.

When the windlass lunched some teeth on its not-available-anymore drive gears we replaced it with a Lofrans Tigres (first photo). Power out and in, although it still has a handwheel to control the friction clutch. It also has a manual retrieve mode. So if we had to deploy the anchor without the benefit of the motor we would do the same thing we did on our old windlass.

Marin · Jul 10, 2012

Delete duplicate post.

Phil Fill · Jul 10, 2012

Dropping/lowering the anchor scares me to heck! Our anchors are 70+ lbs which is about all my wife can lift/handle.

I been thinking about getting a bigger/heavier anchor but my wife refuses to bulk/muscle up. :nonono:

I thought about installing a reversing solenoid for about 100 bucks, but since the windless is slow, so at some point, would loosen the clutch/brake and let is free fall until the anchor hits bottom. Then using the brake let/play out the chian until the desired scope.

We don’t anchor much but each year I pull the chain out and WD-40 it to make sure there are not kinks and it comes out of the locking with not hang ups. Especially the bottom of the chain pile that does not get used much.

Shoalwaters · Jul 10, 2012

My boat also came with a Powerwinch; up-only and no clutch on the chain gypsy, so letting out chain involved gloves and a lot of hand over hand. I wanted to be able to motor the chain down and installed a reversing solenoid. Like Gulfstar, I found that the gear train just locked up. The secret is the roller bearing which supports the smallest gear (arrow). The tiny rollers only permit rotation in one direction. I replaced it with a standard bearing and the windlass is now reversible.

My Powerwinch is a fairly ugly piece of engineering and not best suited to the marine environment. Although it now motors the chain down, it does so very slowly. It is better than nothing, but a real windlass with a clutch like Marin's is definitely on my wish-list. Please note that the picture was taken before I cleaned, lubed and painted the whole thing.

Gulfstar 36 · Jul 10, 2012

Great info! Here is a photo of mine from the day be bought her. Not much to look at. How do you remove the cover, unbolt the whole unit?

Shoalwaters said:
My boat also came with a Powerwinch; up-only and no clutch on the chain gypsy, so letting out chain involved gloves and a lot of hand over hand. I wanted to be able to motor the chain down and installed a reversing solenoid. Like Gulfstar, I found that the gear train just locked up. The secret is the roller bearing which supports the smallest gear (arrow). The tiny rollers only permit rotation in one direction. I replaced it with a standard bearing and the windlass is now reversible.

My Powerwinch is a fairly ugly piece of engineering and not best suited to the marine environment. Although it now motors the chain down, it does so very slowly. It is better than nothing, but a real windlass with a clutch like Marin's is definitely on my wish-list. Please note that the picture was taken before I cleaned, lubed and painted the whole thing.

FlyWright · Jul 10, 2012

If you need help from the Powerwinch lowering the anchor, can't you just wrap the rode the other way around the capstan? IOW, wrap over the top to raise, wrap under the bottom to lower?

I had a PW when I bought my 34 Californian. It was a lot of work and left a mess on te fwd deck. It got replaced with a windlass and a RW washdown hose within a few years.

meridian · Jul 10, 2012

Mike,
Did you just use a DPDT toggle switch? Mine currently has a spst on top of the case.

JAT · Jul 10, 2012

Capn Craig said:
I have a up only Ideal windless with about 75 feet of 5/16 BB chain and a 27 lb anchor. I am able to lower it by hand but it is heavy with 50' of chain out. Fortunately in my case, the Mississippi is seldom over 20' deep anyplace I want to anchor so I never experience the wieght of more than the anchor and 20' or less chain. It's a nuisance but not a show stopper. The Admiral can't do it though.It is run by a DC motor so I see no reason why reversing the polarity on the motor wouldn't make it run backward.

Capn Craig.... I have spoken to people who claim they have done that with an Ideal windlass.... I have an Ideal on our boat also. I had a discussion with one of the engineers at Ideal...they sell a kit that adds a switch, another solenoid and a harness to make the windlass operate in reverse.

We have 400' of chain on our 60 lb CQR.....and I am thinking about adding that kit to our windlass....

Tom.B · Jul 10, 2012

Currently, until I figure out what's wrong... My windlass is DOWN only.

CPseudonym · Jul 10, 2012

GonzoF1 said:
Currently, until I figure out what's wrong... My windlass is DOWN only.

Ain't boating fun

Shoalwaters · Jul 11, 2012

Gulfstar. Yes, in order to remove the cover you do have to unbolt the whole unit from the deck! The half dozen machine screws holding the cover on are then accessible. After that, undo the big nut and remove rope drum and gypsy. Then tilt the cover and slide it off over the drive shaft. My rope drum was frozen onto the shaft and removal would have destroyed the whole thing. I made two vertical cuts through the cover either side of the gypsy. the cover now lifts off leaving a small piece in place. One of the cuts is visible in the picture below.

I welded an aluminium strip onto each end of the cover. Stainless bolts with wing nuts make removal a breeze. My windlass sits on the bowsprit, so this was easy to arrange; yours might need a slightly different approach.

Meridian. The reversing solenoid lives in a little box under the foredeck. I have a pair of waterproof foot switches next to the windlass. They don't handle any significant current, but it's nice to have both hands free.

meridian · Jul 15, 2012

I just got my Powerwinch cover off and the unit cleaned. It is a model 412 and looks just a little different that the one Mike has shown above. I have the original documentation which shows the all the parts. Shown at the top of the page "This is a permanent magnetic motor and is polorized for rotation. Reversing may cause motor gear to back off the threaded shaft and/or possible damage to motor or wiring"

What does "polorized to rotation" mean? I'll check tomorrow and see if it has the lock-out bearing

FlyWright · Jul 15, 2012

I believe it means it is not designed to be reversed. Motor damage and/or mechanical failure may occur.

meridian · Jul 22, 2012

My thanks to Mike. I took mine apart, changed the non-reversing bearing, used a DPDT switch in place of the original, works good so far.

sdowney717 · Jul 14, 2018

Old thread, but the motor gear is threaded on like a nut, so reversing the motor would cause the motor gear to unscrew from the motor shaft. Only reason it did not, was glued on or rusted together. Not much motor pressure going down.

Up only type windlass

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