Project 1,732: Windlass
20 July 2014 | Yarmouth, Maine
Elizabeth (with technical input from Ed)
One of our summer projects came about after Ed noticed there was oil leaking from the bottom of our windlass housing. (For non-sailors, the windlass raises and lowers our anchor on the bow via an electric motor). Ed removed it from the foredeck and disassembled it to see what the problem was. He discovered a shaft seal was leaking onto the gearbox. This particular windlass has a big electric motor attached to the worm gear shaft that goes into the gear box that turns the gypsy and rope drum (did you get all that?). Ed ordered new seals and while we had everything apart scraped down the paint on the windlass housing. He turned that over to the marina guys for sandblasting and painting. When the seals arrived Ed took off the existing seal and noticed there was corrosion on the shaft. That meant the replacement would fail and retooling would be cost-prohibitive. So what to do? Naturally we had to buy a new gearbox. Once Ed put everything back together with new paint and all we bedded and reinstalled the windlass. This photo was taken as we were working on the re-installation. Skylark now has a good- as-new windlass both inside and outside the unit which should give us another 8-10 years of service.
As part as Ed's annual maintenance he always disassembles the rope drum and gypsy wheel along with additional exterior parts on the drum shaft. He then re-greases and replaces exterior bearings and O-rings. This keeps everything in tip-top shape. Having said that, neither Ed nor the manufacturer can understand how corrosion occurred on the worm gearshaft since it's a completely sealed unit all buttoned up and water tight. This will remain a complete mystery unless one of our very smart and knowledgeable blog readers has some insight. Maybe I'll offer a prize for the best and most logical hypothesis or explanation. Let's see, what would make a worthy prize? A cold beer next time we see you? Or better yet, a rum drink? Some of you will probably vote for a bottle of rum but that seems a bit extravagant for our dwindling budget at this moment in time. Here's Ed's guess: he thinks a small amount of moisture got into the gearbox during manufacturing. What do you think, should I give him the rum drink?