Boat Project
Boat Systems
Living Aboard a Boat
Lewmar CPX3: A Change In the Right Direction?
Sunday, March 22, 2015TheCambrians
It seems like we’ve had nothing but
problems with our windlass over the
past three years. But finally, it looks
like our troubles are over.
Back in September of 2011, we were anchored at a small
marine park just south of Desolation Sound in British Columbia
In hindsight, it was more than
that.
Fast-forward to August of 2012 and an anchorage near
Fiordland Recreational Area along BC’s Central Coast Windy Bay
From then on we ‘babied’ the windlass. We did a good job, too, until October came
around and we got hit by the first major storm of the season. We were in Pender Harbour
As it happened, Defender was having a sale on Lewmar
windlasses that week. The one we’d just
lost was a Muir Atlantic and had given Cambria over ten
years of service. In an ideal world, we
would have just bought a new one and switched them out; but at a cost of over $6,000,
it wasn’t going to happen. The rest of
the gear on Cambria is Lewmar and
because their base plate is the same as the Muir, we were able to make the jump
to a less expensive unit – the CPX3 for $1,200.
So, David ordered a new one and had it shipped to a friend’s house,
giving Defender our chain dimension (10 mm) for the gypsy sizing.
From the beginning, David had concerns about the gypsy
size, so he contacted Defender who assured him they had sent the correct
one. But only two weeks into the 2013
cruising season, we were having problems.
The chain was jamming in the chain feeder bringing everything to an
abrupt stop. So he e-mailed Lewmar directly
to express his concerns. The engineers at Lewmar responded that, after
consulting with their experts, we had indeed received the “best fit” for our
chain.
So, we
moved on to the next thought.
That spring, we’d taken our chain into Seattle
David did the calculations (because that’s what David
does) and, based on the factory specifications, our new windlass should have
been able to easily handle the job – it was performing at less than 50%. But it worked better after straightening the
chain, so we carried on . . . carefully.
We have two points on the boat from which we can
retrieve the anchor – foot switches at the bow and another control from the
helm. Because we carry so much chain
with us, it piles up in the locker and can jam the windlass from below if you
don’t “flake” it out as you bring it in.
David operates the unit from the helm while I sit aft of the chain
locker with a boat hook and spread the chain so it doesn’t pile up. With this new windlass, my job was expanded
to include keeping a watch over every
movement. Any signs of stress on the
motor, and I’d give David the signal to stop so it could rest. Any signs of twist in the chain, I’d give him
the signal to drop the chain back in the water so it could straighten out. If I missed something, we paid the price with
a sudden jam and the boat would shake from stem to stern. It was disconcerting, to say the least.
We were at a loss.
The unit was
installed correctly and in compliance with the given criteria – alignment,
chain drop, etc. – and Lewmar wasn’t proving to be very helpful at this
stage. Because dropping the chain to get
rid of some of the twists worked to a certain degree, we removed all of it from
the locker and straightened it by hand on the dock over the winter. Sections of the chain were twisted so tightly
it was no wonder we were having problems.
Surely that would be the end of everything.
But our concerns continued during the 2014 season and, eventually, the
anchor windlass control arm started to give us problems: It was no longer making contact with the
chain. David attempted to fix it by
removing the arm and adjusting the spring but had limited, if any,
success. From then on, we had to apply
manual pressure (i.e. David’s foot – if you can imagine him straddling the
windlass to keep one foot on the lever and the other on the foot switch) to
bring up the anchor or risk multiple circuit breaker failures and chain jams.
We were beyond disappointed but focused on safely getting through the rest
of the season and back to Washington
To their credit, the head honchos
at Lewmar responded quickly. As it turned out, Defender HAD sent us the wrong gypsy for our chain
size (why didn’t anybody realize that two years ago?) so Lewmar sent us a new
base unit and a gypsy in a matter of a few days, completely restoring our faith
in them and their products.
It turns out that their engineers have been busy since we bought our unit in
2013 and have addressed the design issues, making significant improvements to
the deck unit base including bulking up some of the more vunerable sections
that had either broken off or been worn down on ours, making the chain drop
opening larger, improving the chain track configuration to allow more space
(and less jamming) and enlarging the chain capture casting. In fact, the current model looks exactly like
our former Muir.
We haven’t had the chance to get out of the marina and test the new
windlass yet, but we think we’re going to be happy with change. From where we’re sitting, it’s like night and
day . . . and the new gypsy fits like a glove.
.JPG "Approaching Port Ludlow during our shake-down cruise.")
