Dune
Senior Member
My 65 foot Viking has a huge stainless anchor and all chain rode...but best I can figure it can only be deployed or retreved by someone stepping on the foot switches at the bow. Which seems ridiculous to me...previous 40 foot Egg Harbor I could just flip a switch at the helm or use the bow foot switches.
Having said that, there is a toggle for the windlass at the lower helm...but all it does is turn the system "on"...you still have to push a foot button at the bow to actually lower or raise it. (and FWIW, there are also two separate circuit breakers in case of overload)
Sooooo, why couldn't I make a block of wood wedge to stuff between the lower button and the foot guard above so that switch is always "on" and use the "system on" toggle on the helm to control it from there ? Then pull the wood and wedge the "raise" button on to retrieve it ?
Of course it would be better to rewire the situation so this is not necessary and have separate raise and lower toggles on the helm.... but 65 mile trip coming up soon I don't have time for that and this seems like a good quick and dirty way to do it.... or am I missing something ?
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As an aside, for future reference, does there exist an aftermarket rotary encoder that could digitally count windlass revolutions and thus calculate each revolution to estimate the amount of chain deployed ?
Having said that, there is a toggle for the windlass at the lower helm...but all it does is turn the system "on"...you still have to push a foot button at the bow to actually lower or raise it. (and FWIW, there are also two separate circuit breakers in case of overload)
Sooooo, why couldn't I make a block of wood wedge to stuff between the lower button and the foot guard above so that switch is always "on" and use the "system on" toggle on the helm to control it from there ? Then pull the wood and wedge the "raise" button on to retrieve it ?
Of course it would be better to rewire the situation so this is not necessary and have separate raise and lower toggles on the helm.... but 65 mile trip coming up soon I don't have time for that and this seems like a good quick and dirty way to do it.... or am I missing something ?
==================================
As an aside, for future reference, does there exist an aftermarket rotary encoder that could digitally count windlass revolutions and thus calculate each revolution to estimate the amount of chain deployed ?
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