Hi, y'all. I'm replacing a failed Lewmar 1000 which has, I believe,
5/16 chain.

Based on the Popular Sailor review of like windlasses, and the Seven
Seas Cruising Association survey of Windlass owners, I believe the
Lewmar V3GD is the one of choice to make that happen for our
installation. It will ship either to us in GA 30568, or to my
contractor, in FL 33701.

We're ready to order now; the old one is out and the substrate/backing
material is ready for redo once we know what size and other
considerations are needed to make it fit. Has anyone done one of these
recently? If so, any advice?

Also, in general, (for stuff in general, too) with a list price of over
2k, and street price somewhere in the 15s, for what I've discovered,
who/what is your favorite supplier which might ship me one of these?

Thanks.

L8R

Skip and Lydia, refitting to cut the cord

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

Have you looked at Ideal windlasses?

http://www.idealwindlass.com/

If I were outfitting for a world cruise they would be one of my top
choices. They've been in busines for a long time and have a near
legendary reputation for reliability and service.

wrote:
Have you looked at Ideal windlasses?

http://www.idealwindlass.com/

If I were outfitting for a world cruise they would be one of my top
choices. They've been in busines for a long time and have a near
legendary reputation for reliability and service.

Yes, in the course of my initial research (long-timers here know of my
compulsion to know what I'm about before I set out to spend any
significant boat bux), we looked at them. I no longer recall the
reason we discarded them - whether configuration (we want vertical
windlass gypsy and capstan) or cost, we elected to choose from several
others.

The choice range we settled on was based on results of the Seven Seas
Cruising Association survey of windlass users. Several, if not all, of
those we chose to choose from were also just reviewed by Practical
Sailor. None of them were panned, as PS will do if they think
something isn't up to snuff.

In the end, the one we chose was rated a clear winner - the Consumer
reports version of a Best Buy - being moderately priced, well
warrantied and accessoried, and pulling like a 20-mule team. Only one
costing nearly double was rated faster; it didn't have any more pulling
power nor better warrantee, etc.

Solid stainless topsides warmed our hearts, but in the end, the
confluence of experience and cold-hearted ratings led us to this
choice.

Our challenge at the moment is to find a vendor who actually knows
what's included in the basic package from Lewmar and to determine what
we want to buy in addition to that. There are several vendors who
quote similar prices (as noted in my original). At this point, I'll
give the deal to the one who's most responsive; currently that seems to
be BoatBandit, from whom I bought my cockpit fixed and handheld VHF
gear and likely will also get my HF and VHF navstation gear.

We're going to the boat, currently secured against the fringe of Wilma,
on Nov 10 on the way over to the SSCA meeting in Melbourne. We'll take
most of what's in the storage building there and install it (stow,
really), the better to just provision and do last minute projects when
we head to the boat for good.

Current target for that is January in Lydia's mind, but that will be
entirely dependent on my shoulder rehab, the info on which should be a
great deal clearer this week, as my final post-op with the surgeon will
be right on the heels of a PT visit where we're monitoring the success
of training the relocated muscles to do something different than they'd
done for the last 60 years. If I can get my arm over my head, or
there's no progress (failure of the objective of the operation), by
then, we're outta here. If I'm continuing to make progress, but can't
yet do it, we'll have to wait until I can. THEN, we're outta here :{))

In the meantime, I'm marrying off the two remaining children (New
Year's Eve and Valentine's Day), hoping to be in the position to be in
seatrials to go to one of Lydia's kids' best buddies' wedding in Long
Boat Key (a daysail away from our haul-out) the first week in February,
and soon after, once the weather window is there, hightail it to the
Bahamas, never to be seen again :{))

Thanks for the assistance in the windlass search...

L8R

Skip and Lydia


"There is nothing-absolutely nothing-half so much worth doing as simply
messing about in boats.
In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter,
that's
the charm of it.
Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never
get
anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to
do, and
you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."

Yes, in the course of my initial research (long-timers here know of my
compulsion to know what I'm about before I set out to spend any
significant boat bux), we looked at them. I no longer recall the
reason we discarded them - whether configuration (we want vertical
windlass gypsy and capstan) or cost, we elected to choose from several
others.

Skip, I admire your tenacity and wish you well on your cruise but I
can't help but give you a couple of cautionary tales. You may need to
do a reliability and risk analysis for your key systems, and guage the
impact that failure of a sub-system will have on your voyage. Unless
you plan on staying docked at marinas most of the time, your anchor and
windlass are some of the most important gear on board. Think about the
difficulty of repairing/replacing precision machinery in the boondocks.
Think about the difficulty of pulling your anchor and chain by hand.
Think about the root cause of failure in your old windlass. Did you
disassemble and examine the inards? I had a 1500 on my old boat which
failed after a couple of seasons doing weekend boating, and was
appalled at what I found inside. These windlasses look beautiful when
new and perform well for a while, but they are not built to withstand
the rigors of constant, hard usage. That may be the reason why they
are less expensive than some other brands. Mine failed from a leaking
seal on the main shaft, which allowed salt spray into a gear box which
can only be described as rivaling a Swiss watch in delicacy and
complexity.