Foredeck Physics

 

Rich, marine engineer extraordinaire, makes short work of removing Stargazer's failed windlass. (See New Year’s Morn post).

The cause, of its demise is quickly clear. Electrolysis has been at work. The aluminium casting, of the chassis, has nobly sacrificed itself upon the altar of the Periodic Table. All that remains is a fine dust, surrounding a few skeletal 'fingers' of solid metal. It is one of these which has jammed the gypsy. To which the motor was connected only by the steel drive spindle. The housing crumbled to a powder.

A vacuum removes the debris and a wipe down, with methylated spirit, prepares Stargazer's foredeck to receive her new windlass. Bolt and hawse pipe holes align perfectly, as promised by the brochure.

Below decks we hit a snag. This is a 'boat job'  after all! The motor has grown in diameter, in the fourteen years since the original was fitted. The new one fouls both the locker front and the deck camber. Rotating it through one hundred and eighty degrees improves, but does not fully resolve, matters. Rich and I pause for coffee, cake and contemplation.

A plan is hatched. I glue and wire the pin of a new anchor shackle, on the dock. Whilst Rich returns to the his workshop, to fashion a structural plastic spacer. Our idea is to lower the motor. Simultaneously creating a clearance between its top and the deckhead; as well as its circumference and the locker door jamb.

Shadows stealthily lengthen across the foredeck. Until the windlass installation is complete and the anchor sits back on the bow roller. Stargazer is ready to sail, in search of secluded anchorages, once more.