Anchor chain and Windless maint. - 2014

October 2014 - Currently in Paradise Village Marina in Banderas Bay Mexico

Here I am cutting the 3\8 BBB chain with a dremel.

First we wanted to lop off about 5' of chain. It gets rusty and the steel flakes off by the anchor from rain etc over the summer. Next summer we will disconnect the chain from the anchor and drop it into the anchor locker to prevent this from happening. Well actually next summer we are buying 200' of new 3\8 BBB chain! Then re-splice our 125' or whatever it line back on the end of the new chain.

My last cutting bit and it broke.

Mike from S\V Indian Summer (Red Dolphin Cruises) a 45' Hunter CC came to the rescue with his angel grinder.

We started out annual maintenance on our Lewmar H3 Anchor Windlass but ran into trouble. We got down as far as the gypsy removing other gears etc but then got stuck. There is a plate down and sort of under the gypsy that needs come off to remove the gypsy. It will not budge. The socket head screws that hold it in, (two of them) are stuck or frozen on the housing. This is not surprising since the housing is aluminum and the screws are stainless steel. Also all the crap from the chain falls on them as the chain goes through the gypsy. We hose down the chain as it comes into the bow roller but some junk still makes it in the boat. So we will grease up the parts we have gotten off the shaft and we have a new project for next summer 😟

The frozen screws. Next summer we will drill the the screw heads off and pop off the stainless steel plate. Then probably use some vice grips to get the screws out of the housing. Sounds like a plan. 

Note:

 We did take out the Lewmar H3 Anchor Windlass and take it to a machine shop for the screws to be removed.