28te Windlass

[Pitou]

I'd give a look up underneath and near where the shifter/throttle control is and trace from there (above the water tank and forward of the holding tank. Get ready to crawl in! That is the location that Albin installed the breaker and up / down switch at the helm. Their is a fair sized bundle right there.

Here is a location picture of the factory installed combo breaker and up/down switch from my 28TE -

Windlass Breaker & Switch.png

[carolmarie]

Kevin:
What is the function of the "T" handle in front of your shifter?
Thanks,
Don.

[Pitou]

Kevin:
What is the function of the "T" handle in front of your shifter?
Thanks,
Don.

"T" is for the push / pull cable on the trolling valve that I had added.

[djpeewee]

Continuing on with the windlass topic...

Unfortunately, I just smoked our Lofrans Dorado windlass last week. Had to pull 50' of 5/16" chain and a 27lb anchor by hand. Which left me wondering - has anyone replaced the Lofrans horizontal windlass with some sort of vertical one? I have never been too happy with the horizontal because I often had the chain jump in the chain wheel and slip a foot or so. It really jars the bow roller and the whole windlass set up when this happens. I'm thinking that because the vertical chain wheel has 180 degrees of contact with the rode it will do a more consistent job than the horizontal windlass with only 90 degrees of contact with the rode. I am considering the Lewmar V2.

[rcwhite]

We had a Lofrans Dorado horizontal windlass on our 28. We never had
any issues with the chain slipping. Have you confirmed that your chain
is a match for the Gypsy? If the chain & rode do not match the Gypsy
the chain can jump and operation will be rough. We had 100' of chain
and the only issue we had was jamming due to the shallow depth of
the locker.

Our 35 has a vertical windlass and operation was very rough
last year due to a mismatch between the chain and Gypsy.
After replacing the chain it is much smoother now. Locker isn't really
much better on the 35, have to make room
for the chain after 50'.

[djpeewee]

I thought the same thing, so we replaced the chain with ACCO 5/16" G43 HT ISO short link and bought the 5/16" gypsy. Chain is definitely per spec for the gypsy. Actually, it didn't improve from the 1/4" setup.

[rcwhite]

Curious, I just took a look at what I have kicking around and
we were running the 1/4" Gypsy with G4 chain. Sounds like
you have that covered though.

[Tree]

We are just thinking about swapping out the factory fitted windlass with a Profish 1000 - i'm guessing that the power cable will also need up-rating?

We currently have the 700 watt Good windlass but it does have a habit of knocking the trip out when in heavy seas. We need something with more grunt!

[RobS]

We are just thinking about swapping out the factory fitted windlass with a Profish 1000 - i'm guessing that the power cable will also need up-rating?

We currently have the 700 watt Good windlass but it does have a habit of knocking the trip out when in heavy seas. We need something with more grunt!

"Knocking the trip out" What does that mean? You are cleating off, right?

I would check your wiring, you may be fine. Albin did a good job wiring the 28's with the right stuff.

[Tree]

The trip switch mounted under the helm seat Rob. When under load in heavy seas and hauling the anchor, occasionally the trip (circuit breaker) will cut out. It happened on Sunday 22 miles out a couple of times while I was hauling the anchor in 180 feet of water. I think the good windlass comes with a 50 amp breaker where as the lewmar has a 100 amp as standard. Obviously I don't want to change the 50 amp setting as that's what it is designed for, I just think that the 700w motor has either had its day or is just not strong enough for the load being applied to it.

[djpeewee]

I too have been looking at the ProFish 1000 as an easy horizontal replacement. I have hesitated as it is not very well regarded if you go by the reviews. Actually, the reviews are pretty dismal. Alternately, my boat builder contact says they use them frequently and have had no negative reports from the owners. Not sure which way to go on this... which is why I have been looking for something else... like the Lewmar V2.

As far as wiring goes, the factory Dorados were either 500w or 700w motors. Mine was 700w. The ProFish is 700w also, as is the V2, so there shouldn't be any issue with the existing wiring. I think Albin used 1AWG on my boat for the windlass. Taking into consideration the length of the run and allowable voltage drop, 1AWG should be good up to 125A (1500W @ 12v) or better. The ProFish comes with a 70A circuit breaker, so it is well within the capacity of the factory wiring (on my boat).

If you are having problems with the existing wiring, make sure your connections are tight and clean. I noticed mine were corroded in the anchor locker. I sanded the corrosion off of the terminal with 600 grit sandpaper and then sprayed with corrosion blocker after everything was reassembled. Didn't have any issues - until I melted the motor.

[Tree]

Pretty sure that's the problem we are having. Good supply a 50 amp breaker with their windlasses. Spoke with a marine electrician today and he has confirmed that the breaker is right in the limit of the motor and will "trip" out often. I've just ordered an 80 amp breaker assuming I have 1 AWG cable. If I find that the motor is getting hot then I'll cut my losses and fit the Lewmar Profish 1000. Thankfully Lewmar is a client of mine where I make deck fittings for them so I can get one at better than trade prices .

[Pitou]

I too have been looking at the ProFish 1000 as an easy horizontal replacement. I have hesitated as it is not very well regarded if you go by the reviews. Actually, the reviews are pretty dismal. Alternately, my boat builder contact says they use them frequently and have had no negative reports from the owners.

I have the Pro-Fish 1000 and am on my second season with it and do a fair amount of anchoring and have had no issues. The previous owner had 7 seasons with it though he just used it as beach anchor with a standard Lewmar anchor rode of 15 ft. of chain and about 200 ft. of 3 strand. I switched the rode out right away with 125 ft. of 5/16 G4 chain and 5/8 plait line. Works like a dream in freefall or on the switch. With all of that chain, freefall takes it all no matter the depth and it goes fast. Because of all of the chain on my rode, I do not use freefall unless in 125 or more feet of water because I would not want to try and stop the chain with the up switch.

I have noticed that Lewmar has come out with an "upgrade rope guard and control arm kit". I imagine that this is to prevent the rope from jumping the gypsy. I have not had the problem.

Here are some specs from my installation / user's manual on the Pro-Fish Series:

Pro-Fish 700 - 0-23 ft. - 8 AWG
23-50 ft. - 6 AWG
breaker - 50 amp
boat length - to 32 ft.

Pro-Fish 1000 - 0-23 ft. - 6 AWG
23-50 ft. - 4 AWG
breaker - 70 amp
boat length - to 39 ft.

I think one of the keys to keeping any windlass operating as intended is annual maintenance. This is especially important for the freefall feature. It's pretty easy and all you need is some grease & loctite. Cleaning and protecting the connections in the anchor locker is just as important and probably most forgotten in annual boat maintenance.

[Chipper]

Does pulpit need to be removed to replace windless?

[Pitou]

Does pulpit need to be removed to replace windless?

Removing the pulpit is not necessary.