Lofrans manual windless on cutter. searched forum...

[nosara]

As part of our CD 30 C refit we are installing a manual windless. Lofrans Royal Manual. Has anyone installed one on their Cutter? This is one our projects.
So far, new bottom,new standing rigging, furling headsail, engine rebuild. To do, new anti skid, new water system. Plan to complete May. Alot of work but also peace of mind zero timing systems.

[fenixrises]

Hi all,

I installed a Lofrans on FeNIX, CD28. Some words of caution follow.

The windlass was strong enough for my 1/4" high test chain and when the windlass worked it was fine.
BUT!! I often had to retrieve the anchor and chain by hand because the main shaft on the windlass siezed.
Granted I was doing a lot of ocean sailing, especially the first year(2006). So the windlass was often soaked with salt water for extended periods of time.

If you have the painted version beware. It is powder coated. If you get a small nick in the finish salt corrosion will work its way under the paint extensively. In less than one year nearly all the paint on my windlass was gone. It might be worth while disassembling the entire windlass and having the main housing anodized.

What I finally did, was this.
I disassembled the entire windlass. This was incredibly difficult as the space between the main shaft and
bushings was packed with salt and corrosion residue. Once all was free and cleaned I reassembled the windlass
with one minor change.

The windlass has two side covers. During re-assembly I sealed these covers with an automotive type silicon gasket sealer.
Its red and works very well. I also used teflon pipe dope paste(available in any Home Depot) to lubricate and seal
the threads of the fasteners that hold on the side covers. BTW the fasteners are flathead(?) metric hex drive screws so you need the right size hex drive. Its small, down around 4 ~ 6 mm.

Also there are two very large metric hex cap screws that hold the idler gears in place, one on top, one on the bottom. You can get a hex tool for a 3/8" socket drive that will fit these bolts. Its a big hex 10~12 mm. But it will take some looking, Sears possibly. I could not find one in ENZED. I used a short bolt with two nuts tightened against each other with the head of the bolt inside the hex drive of the bolt as a removal tool.

After reassembly, very carefully remove the large upper bolt. Do not turn any of the windlass parts as this will upset the alignment of the gear. Then fill the housing with 80~90 weight gear oil up to the bottom level of the main shaft of the windlass. Reinsert the bolt and you are good to go.

This can be a bit messy as the gear oil will weep past the shaft so do not over-fill. But this weeping will insure that the
shaft is getting lubricated. You should ratchet the windlass numerous cycles at least weekly to insure the mainshaft stays
lubricated.

If all this seems a bit much or you do not want to keep up with the weeping gear oil you can just use a good quality
wheel bearing grease during reassembly, apply quite liberally. The waterproof(?) type used for boat trailers wheels comes to mind. You should have noticed during dis-assembly that the factory is quite sparing with the grease.

On the CD30 you will probably be mounting the windlass through the bow plank. Follow all the normal hole drilling and mounting guidelines such as insuring that any balsa core is removed from the vacinity of the bolt holes. The holes should be sealed with epoxy. A generous backing plate setup is strongly advised. On SunShine, my current boat, I laminated two pieces of 1/2" ply to the underside of the foredeck. The ply extends the full width of the deck and are about 2' long fore and aft.
Directly under my current windlass I installed an additional 1/4" aluminum plate about 12"WX18"L.

If all of this seems a bit of overkill just remember I know of two boats that were total losses because their windlasses
pulled out of the foredeck.

Take care,
Fred

[Steve Laume]

I always wondered how the horizontal shaft works out on the CD-30. Where do you find room to mount it and how does the chain fall into the anchor locker? The most troubling part of this is getting a lead to the rope side of the windless. I can see where you could easily get a fair lead to the chain capstan but how do you cross over to the rope side and what is the procedure for switching from the rope to chain portion of your rode? Do you haul line and then put a snubber on until you can haul enough rode in by hand to get a purchase on the chain? Do you use a snatch block or a pair of then to get the rode onto the rope capstan?

Raven is currently running 90' of 5/16" chain spliced to three strand with a 35# CQR. This makes for some heavy lifting. I don't want to get into an electric windless but there are not many choices in manuals these days. It seems like a vertical windless would be a better fit for our boats.

I am still good for a few more years but there may come a day when I need a windless and there are times right now when it sure would be nice, Steve.

[nosara]

I've not installed the winless yet. But as for the techniques for the drum I'm not sure yet. I'm considering going with 150 feet of chain5/16. But that is a lot of weight. I also like the 90 ft chain plus nylon formula. My main issue is fitting a proper installation so stay tuned. All things considered I'm open to ideas from everyone's experience.
Also, I have the anodized Lofrans Royal.