Lewmar Power Winch

[whotookmyhandle?]

I run a free fall 1000 on the Intrepid with 5/8 3 strand, 32' 5/16 chain, swivel and a 35# Delta plow. Today I lost everything again to this frigging POS. My fault I guess because I don't crawl up front and cleat off the line. It seems that when anchoring with big loads. (both days very similar) 4-5 seas around 65' deep the line gets pinched so tight in the gypsy that it sheers clean off. Brand new New England rope.

I'm at 1,300$ and counting in ground tackle.

Anyone else have these problems?

[emudryj]

DAMN!!! thats serious $$$$... I overdid it with mine because I got a ebay deal that it was stupidly good at that time. I was suposed to do good with a V700 but, got a V2. That may help if you do not want to cleat the line...

Get something ballsier than what you need, but either way I do not think that you are going to get away for ever. If you do not cleat the line sooner or later you will loose the gears on the windlass.

Either way I crawl to the bow every time to cleat the line since I do not want to go thru the pain of having to re- install that frivking thing again.

[savage]

Dang! Sorry for your loss.

I run the same Lewmar ProFish 1000 with Free Fall, and had a problem last fall where the free-fall clutch got screwed on account of a minor load pulling out without being cleated off. Fortunately, I didn't lose any rode or steel.

There is a tale with photos under my same user name on that oTHer siTe, about how I was able to repair the Free-Fall clutch feature and get the ProFish model windlass working again.

Seems that it is mandatory to push the Up Anchor switch for a few seconds after free falling, to bring the clutch/crank thingy back under load.

Next windlass, I'll get the capstan style and not worry about chain size, rode diameter, swivel diameters, or run-out under load. probably save a buck or too as well.

[kerno]

The thing is cutting 5/8 line? I think the fault has to lie in the combination gypsy. As you know, the teeth are supposed to hold the chain and the V below the teeth is supposed to grip the line. I supect the problem is the result of using 5/8 line in a 5/16 chain gypsy. The line cannot get deep enough in the gypsy to avoid the teeth of the chain portion.

Typically I'd expect to see 3/8 or 1/2 inch chain with 5/8 line. 1/2 inch line is common with 5/16 chain and I'll bet 1/2 sits deep enough in the gypsy to be protected. The ugly part is the Lewmar parts are stupidly expensive and a gypsy is on their solid gold list.