Nope, the "Tigress" I'm talking about is not the good looking girl pictured here on Sinbad. That's Chrissie, Diane's oldest daughter. I'm talking about the Loffrens Tigress Windlass in front of Chrissie. I just finished wiring it this weekend. It's been a long haul but I finally got it done.
Here is Sinbad's bow last spring. No windlass, which means that you have to pull up that 45lb CQR anchor by hand. Believe me it's not fun when the anchor is packed with mud and weeds. That happened at Beaver Island last summer,and it made this old man feel REALLY old. At the time I had already mounted the windlass and foot pedals to operate it, but didn't have it wired to the batteries. I knew that I would be relocating the batteries and didn't want to waste the money hooking it up. But now we have power. No chain yet, but life is getting better!
A note to the do-it-yourselfers who read this; Loffrens recommends that the Tigress windlass should be supported by a battery of at least 250 amp hrs. I didn't want the extra weight of two batteries in the bow, so I ran the thick 1/0 wire from windlass to the house bank (under the starboard settee amidships). The windlass motor cover barely fit over the 3 wires connected to the motor. When I tried to run the windlass it wouldn't, the breaker would kick off. After hours of troubleshooting, I pulled the cover back off and I could see where the 1/0 wire lugs were shorting out on the cover. So with a 2x4 and a big hammer, just a few swings later the lugs were flat. I put everything back together and it worked perfectly!
Happy Sails...rr
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