Windlass Installation
Maxwell 1200 vertical windlass

Aurora, Hull No. 94

 

I installed a Maxwell 1200 vertical windlass on Aurora in 1999. The installation is fairly well described in photos in the Pearson 424 Photo Gallery.

I used welding wire from the engine starting batteries to the motor in the forward cabin and tapped off those for the control wiring and wash-down system. Circuit breakers for those two systems are mounted on a trim board used to hide the motor and controls. The main breaker panel is located in the aft cabin near the battery switches.

               
The key features of the installation are the location of the winch and the chain pipe relatively close together but on opposite sides of the deck locker/forepeak bulkhead. Although the motor is in the forward cabin, it is not nearly as objectionable as I had previously imagined. It is so high and forward that it doesn’t take away any useful space and is easy to box in and conceal from view. The bulkhead offers an easy mounting location for the control box, close to the motor, thus simplifying the wiring. The chain pipe is mounted on the deck locker cover over one end of a three inch diameter fiberglass tube, the other end of which is glassed into the bottom of the locker at a point which allows the chain to fall vertically into the deepest part of the forepeak. The location of the chain pipe on the cover was a compromise between trying to keep the horizontal part of the chain short (about a foot) and the slope of the tube steep (about 60 degrees). The top end of the tube was ground flush with the underside of the cover to prevent any significant flooding should the locker drain become plugged. I believe this installation offers a number of advantages when compared to the forward location I had originally planned. Among them are:

• Better angular alignment of the lead of both rodes to the winch
• Greater vertical drop available to overcome friction and allow room for stacking of chain
• All components except the top works and all electrical connections are located in a dry environment
• Motor/gearbox easily accessible to check and refill lubricant
• Room for an operator to position himself behind the winch facing aft when using it to haul a dinghy aboard or someone up the mast

Material costs were as follows:

Maxwell 1200 Windlass	$ 1,500
Extra deck thickness option	125
SW 13512 Dual Direction kit	156
P 20352 Chain Stopper	126
P20338 Chain Pipe	129
Wire	209
Other materials, freight, taxes	220
	___________
	$ 2,465

Wash Down System Materials:
I purchased a Groco wash down kit. It comes with a 35-psi vane pump and pressure switches installed on a polyethylene mounting board and also includes an inlet check valve and hose nozzle. I installed it along with a Groco raw water strainer in the cabinet under the counter in the forward cabin. The water supply for the system is through a T fitting in the basin drain line just above the seacock. It was necessary to install a shut-off valve above the T to make this work because, even with the sink stopper in place, there is a large enough air column in the drain line to un-prime the pump A hose runs upward from the pump, behind the cabinets and along the port side wire channel, to a deck connection forward of the anchor locker.

Washdown Kit	$ 198
Strainer	68
Deck Fitting	33
Hose	30
Other (wire, fittings, etc)	120
	___________
	$ 449