Everytime we raise our 140 lb anchor and the 1/2″ chain – I say a silent thank you to the windlass (Maxwell HWC 3500) – that hydraulically-powered gizmo on the deck that raises and lowers the anchor. Having had a failure on our previous boat, I’ve always wondered what the backup plan should be if it fails. Two weeks ago in Bahia Los Frailles – it failed.

In preparation for our trip to the South Pacific and the possibility that we might have to anchor in 100 feet of water, we decided to mark the chain to accurately know how much we have out and how much we have left. The chain was previously painted but most of the paint had worn off.

At Bahia Los Frailles, as we were anchored in 25 feet of water on a calm day, we ran all 400 feet of 1/2 chain out and backed up the boat so the chain was stretched out on the sandy bottom. Christine and I donned our dive gear and went down with 50 feet of measured rope and zip ties to mark every 50 feet of chain. The marking/diving mission went smoothly. After ascending, we restarted the wing engine for hydraulic power and began to raise the anchor. We had 100 feet up when the windlass stopped turning. The motor was still running, but nothing was happening with the windlass.

We tightened the clutch nut (which wasn’t loose), nothing. We shut everything down and restarted, still nothing. At this point, we are looking at raising up 300 feet of chain without the motor. The good news, it was 2pm, and the weather is good with no wind.

We pulled out the Maxwell manual – sure enough there is a procedure for raising the anchor “manually”. It’s a joke. You put the 18″ bar in the clutch wheel and using both hands can raise 6″ in one “throw”. We raised about 10 feet and were feeling the need for a margarita – at this rate it will take two weeks to raise the anchor.

Plan B – fire up the KVH and call Melt Emms, from Raven Marine, our project manager that did the work on the boat in Sidney BC. While the KVH was warming up, we started to think about other options – possibly using the hydraulic davit.

On the second ring Melt answered, he was on N62 Fleet in the Bahamas – and amazed his phone even works. His guess was that the shear pin is broken – this pin goes between the hydraulic motor and the windlass gear box. It likely was broken or weakened over time, and running out 400 feet and bringing back 100 feet was enough to finish it off. His second guess was the pin in the aft deck windlass would be the same size. We looked at the project of disassembling both windlass motors and decided we should use the remaining daylight to find a manual way to raise the anchor.

After we sold our sailboat, I found two sets of Harken blocks with a cleat on one block that we had used for the running backs. I was about to give them to a sailing buddy at the marina, when he said – just throw them onboard, you never know when you’ll need them – and it’s not like you don’t have the space to store them.

Christine figured if we tied the block with the cleat to the bow roller, and then lowered the other block to the waterline, I could sit in the zodiac and hook the chain with the lower block and then pull down on the line from the upper block. (We used a motorcycle tie-down for the hook.) We found we could raise 8 feet at a time, and then Christine would put the chain into the chain box and secured around the windlass capstan (with the capstan lock in place). We raised 200 feet in a little over an hour and a half, and decided we could have that margarita now, and raise the remaining 100 feet in the morning.

After raising the anchor successfully the next morning, we went in Puerto Los Cabos marina and started taking the windlass apart – Melt was correct on both counts, the shear pin (Maxwell part SP0530 roll pin) was broken and the aft deck windlass (Maxwell 2200) had the same size shear pin. We checked both boat yards in Cabo – nobody has the pin. On the phone to Maxwell the next day – yes they have the part for $2.50 – only available through one of their distributors. So we special ordered from West Marine – yes four pins for $10, and $15 of shipping. Hate to count on West Marine – so then found the M5 x 26mm steel roll pin on Amazon – 25 pcs for $30 plus $10 shipping – so we had those shipped (2 day) to a friend who is forwarding to Cabo. So we should be able to supply the entire fleet in the South Pacific.

The pin took off from the aft deck windlass.

Roll pin image ripped off from Amazon.

Always looking to the bright side – this didn’t happen in an anchorage 100 feet deep with the wind blowing 25 knots – we actually had phone/internet coverage with KVH. Even better, now we know we can raise the anchor “manually”.