This article is an explanation of how I installed a windlass on my 2001 Tartan 3500 (#131, Catcher). I didn’t realize that boats actually came without windlasses until I bought Catcher. As a cruising and comfort-seeking sort of sailor it seemed quite an important piece of equipment for me, to retrieve sticky anchors from differing angles or just to pull up lots of chain for a tired crew.

Does it fit? Where? Which one?

I saw other Tartans with vertical windlasses forward of the anchor locker hatch. I checked my configuration and found a Lewmar V3 would fit very nicely with sufficient free fall of the rode. It is slightly more powerful than suggested for the boat size (Lewmar’s guide suggests a V1 or a V2). I liked the drum in addition to the gypsy so I could use the windlass for life-threatening activities like hoisting people up the mast.

I had had a manual vertical windlass on my previous boat and it worked

well. I preferred the hidden-below-deck aspect of the electric motor in the vertical windlasses and their apparent compactness. I have since learnt that horizontal ones are more trouble free in rode handling. Other Tartan 3500 owners have differing foredeck configurations lending themselves to a horizontal windlass within the anchor locker (against the aft wall) and a bump-up on the locker lid for the lead of the rode. This is a very nice configuration in my view.

INSTALLING A LEWMAR V3 (or V2) WINDLASS ON A 2001 TARTAN 3500

Catcher’s foredeck before windlass installation showing original hawse pipe.

Catcher’s foredeck after windlass installation showing added ss chain stopper.

Cable size:

There was cable already in place for a windlass on Catcher (from the batteries aft to the anchor locker) in the top starboard side wiring conduit. At this point I was looking into required wire sizes for minimal voltage drop (-2% maximum is often bandied about). A useful calculator is at http://www.nooutage.com/vdrop.htm. The cable that was in place was 6 AWG (AWG is gage) which, by my calculations, left me with a 17.2% voltage drop from 13 at the battery to 10.7 volts at the windlass with a power draw of 85 amps (nameplate callout). I removed that cabling and re-used it for the supply side power to my windlass battery.

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6 AWG cabling & switch wires behind liner starboard side

remotetransmitter

covered accesshatches

27 agm

6 AWG cablingtucked abovedrawers

drawers under

breaker

2 AWG cablingunder bed platform

Kracor 30 g Water tank 5072 (listed as 40 g) a

ngle

d

Catcher's bow showing windlass component positions

recess for removable plywood tank cover

flat

bunk top 31" above sole

tank compartment wall

V3 LewmarWindlass

AnchorLocker

2 AWG cabling under deck in anchor locker

2" hose to protectcabling passing throughfiberglass liner

cabling behindliner port side

solenoid

battery

flat

http://www.nooutage.com/vdrop.htmhttp://www.nooutage.com/vdrop.htm

Battery location:

So now I had to run 1/0 AWG (‘one-zero gage’) if I wanted to run cable from my aft batteries. I felt these house batteries were already considerably put upon by my boat’s demand for electricity and so started to think of a separate, forward-located battery. This reduced the necessary cabling size and length, and, with an Xantrex Echo Charger, was easy and economical to charge. So now I had an additional battery in the boat that could always be called upon for emergencies. I also had a windlass that could not drain the house batteries trying to lift rock formations off the ocean floor. When my dedicated forward battery is low, at 12.5 volts, I still have 12.3 volts at the windlass (a 1.7% drop in the short length of 2 AWG cable). I chose an AGM battery because they are maintenance free, very long lasting and can be mounted sideways. My Lifeline 27 AGM has a rated capacity at the 20 hour rate of 100 amp hours. That’s good.

This option may not be appropriate for high-strung racing types as it does increase weight forward when they need it all in their bottoms.

Installation of the Lewmar V3 windlass:

This windlass comes as an assembly of some of the required components. Mine came with a matching circuit breaker, two way switch, the windlass and the gearbox/motor. My deck thickness is an un-cored 3/8” - 1/2” in the sloped ramp where I installed it. I added a 1/4” stainless steel backing plate just larger than the whole footprint of the windlass and bedded it in epoxy and glass against the underside of the deck. This backing plate I had made at a local sheet metal shop. I used West epoxy (that’s a brand, nothing to do with West Marine, although that’s where I bought it). Chopped glass gives strength to thicker splodges of epoxy, which have very little without it.

Laying out the provided template on the deck, and ensuring the windlass would clear the sides of my ‘ramp’ I drilled the holes and cut (hole saw) the larger round openings (hawse and gear box connection). I bolted the backing plate on loosely (vaseline coated the bolts) and then packed the space between it and the deck with my slow setting

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Lewmar V3 windlass.

epoxy and glass mixture. Nasty. Messy. I wore a throwaway coverall, hat and gloves (or you can have someone else who you already feel sorry for do this). I protected the interior of the anchor locker with plastic sheet. Then, I tightened up the bolts snug as snug and wiped off all the excess goo.

Once this has all set well (if the temperature is below 22°c or 72°f allow many times the stated set time, i.e. not one day, but a week) I attached the gearbox/motor assembly. This was quite difficult. It only goes on in a limited number of angular positions (I think it was five?). It weighs a considerable amount and the space is smaller than most of us could fit in even without holding something this heavy up, yes, up, in front of us. The angle of fit is counter intuitive. I think this took my girlfriend, Laura,

about an hour, after I had already spent a couple. It is very good when it finally slides into place.

Running the wiring, 1:

All of my wiring is hidden between the liner and the hull or within underdeck spaces. Based on what I had available and voltage drop calculations (see previous) I used 2 AWG between windlass and solenoid and between breaker, battery

and solenoid. I used 6 AWG

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2" hose to protectcabling passing throughfiberglass liner

V3 LewmarWindlass

battery

solenoidremotetransmitter

breaker

drawers under

Catcher's bow from the side showing windlass component positions

Anchor Locker

bed platform

bow water tankcompartment

Looking under the forward end of the anchor locker. The motor and gearbox in place under the windlass. The ss backing plate can be seen and the hose from the deck-valley drain above the motor.

between the battery and the Echo Charger and 14 AWG for my switching wires. I used crimp on connectors and utilized a professional crimping tool. I would have liked to fill them with solder, but there’s a limit to how far I can go in the direction of theoretical perfection.

Starting at the windlass you need to run two 2 AWG reds (up and down directions) and one black. I cut through into the space between deck and liner using an extended hole saw. I padded this hole with a 12” piece of 2” soft and flexible plastic tube (sanitation hose) to protect the passage of the cable. I drilled as high up in the anchor locker as I could and sealed this hole

and wiring with silicone seal top protect against water ingress. See photo.

I sent a fish

wire through to this tube and so to the anchor locker from the deck fill boss access panel above the port hanging locker in the fore cabin. I pulled each cable through to this access panel and then threaded them down to the under-bed space. Not too bad.

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Battery box, hanging, for Series 27 Lifeline AGM battery

Front view

dimensions in inches

Top view

Series 27 AGM battery

2x side plate

the parts

Ultrasert ll's 1/4-20. 10 required

retainer

base plate

Clearance for 1/4" machine screws

Cabling through the access at the portside aft end of the under-berth space. The white

tube is the for’d tank water fill

Protective tube through the portside aft end of the anchor locker.

Deck fill boss access cover, starboard side (same port).

The positioning of things:

I wanted the battery as close to the windlass as possible. My wiring route was

necessarily convoluted, so I put the battery clear of the access hatches as far to port as I could in the under-bed space. The battery sits on its side with terminals facing the access hatch of this space. I made a simple battery holder/hanger from 1/2” and 5/8” polycarbonate sheet (your local plastics store). This material table saws and drills well, so you can use it. It is bolted together (and to the bed-platform) using threaded brass inserts heated and sunk into correctly sized holes in the plastic for the fasteners. This is easy and very strong (Ultraserts ll) See diagram above.

To this battery holder/hanger I attached the solenoid on the aft side, nearest the cabling entrance. I attached the breaker in the nearest accessible spot, to the right of

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Solenoid on aft side of battery box.

Back of breaker in the under-berth space.

The breaker in fore cabin, with cover plate

Battery in holder. Access hatch above. Solenoid hidden behind. Water fill tube visible in background.

the drawers on the drawer fascia of the fore cabin. The cover plate hides my (or your) bad workmanship on this cutout. The radio signal transmitter for the three button switch (more on this later) I attached as high up as possible, under the bed platform, just outboard of the port access hatch. I ran a signal wire from the output side of the breaker back to my Nav Station to a grounded LED there, so that when this breaker is on there’s a bright red light alerting me. See diagram:

Running the wiring, 2:

The wiring to charge the battery, to the main anchor windlass switch (installed on the binnacle instrument panel)and to the aforementioned LED) on the electrical panel in the Nav Station, runs across the under-bed platform space, tacked to the ‘ceiling’ and into the starboard side behind the liner. Here it is an easy grab from the removable panel

above the forward end of the starboard bookshelf, and was fed back to the Nav Station in the gap between hull and liner using a fish wire from the latter coming forward. The cables run underneath the hot water heater to the binnacle, the main battery banks and the Xantrex Echo Charger.

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The deck fill boss access cover in the main cabin, at the end of the bookcase, starboard side.

The cabling coming down behind the DC Panel at the Nav station into the water heater space.

The hot water tank under the Nav Station desk. New cabling runs below the tank and so, across

centerline, to the batteries.

Project costs in 2010:

what I paid in 2010 including shipping and/or tax:

V3 Lewmar windlass $1,80927 Lifeline AGM battery $257Backing plate, ss $224Chain stopper, ss $3350’ 14-3 tinned wire (to switch at binnacle)! ! ! ! $3912 2-AWG tinned lug cable crimp connector end 1/2”! ! ! $143 6-AWG tinned lug cable crimp connector end 1/2”! ! ! $330’ 2-AWG red tinned battery cable (windlass to solenoid)! ! $9815’ 2-AWG black tinned battery cable (windlass to solenoid)! ! $49Lewmar 3 button Windlass remote (see text) $157Echo Charger, Xantrex $129TOTAL $2,812

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LEFT: To the right of the hot water tank under the Nav Station desk, showing access under the wall.

ABOVE: Cables come through into the battery compartment under the negative bus bar with the newly

installed Echo Charge above it.

Conclusion:

Well, my system works and I am very happy with it now. However, I have two caveats.....

The first is that the rode itself has to deploy smoothly and evenly if a windlass is going to be of any use. Mine had an ungodly lump at the splice of the rope and the chain. This was a system killer in deployment leading me to a faulty decision to anchor in an increasing gale on a way too short rode. The 3 am unknown, but speedy, journey past nastily jagged rocks and so out into the Pacific in that 35 knot gale was not a particularly pleasant awakening. Check and refine deployment until the anchor falls and weighs as it should.

The second is the radio link to the three button switch to control the windlass on the foredeck. I have not tested the new Lewmar model, just released, (Lewmar #68000967 at nearly twice the price) - lets hope its way better. The older one was under-engineered giving intermittent signal at best as I installed it, and although you could purchase a supposed fix (extended antenna), I believe we’d all be better off with properly bedded deck step-on switches.

Good luck,Philip Roberts, T3500 ‘Catcher’ #131

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Aluminum 26 g Water tank

holding tank 16 g

EchoCharger

Stainless steel 25 g fuel tank

hot water tank 6 g

to pedestal

groundingbar

2" hose to protectcabling passing throughfiberglass liner

6 AWG cabling & switch wires behind liner starboard side

remotetransmitter

covered accesshatches

27 agm

6 AWG cablingtucked above drawers

drawersundermast

cover plate

breaker

2 AWG cablingunder bed platform

Kracor 30 g Watertank 5072 (listedas 40 g) a

ngle

d

Catcher's bow showing windlasscomponent positions

recess for removableplywood tank cover

flat

bunk top 31" above sole

tank compartment wall

V3 LewmarWindlass

AnchorLocker

2 AWG cabling under deck in anchor locker

2" hose to protectcabling passing throughfiberglass liner

cabling behind liner port side

solenoid

battery

flat

This is a plan view of Catcher showing the wiring/cabling runs that I put in for the windlass.