Meet Max

  The Maxwell windlass has been an ongoing process, since even before our S/V Cerridwen came into our lives. The windlass was high on our prerequisite list. You know, the list you make before purchasing a house, or a car, or truck. The 'gotta have' list that has to meet certain guide lines. The list that started out 'standing room throughout', because on alot of boats you just don't get the stand up room.

 All through the entire 'Blue Water' prep that has been going on, the 'Anchor Retrieval System' has been getting done, one small step at a time.
  It all started in the Battery banks, the wiring, the placement of them, how much power do we lose per-foot of battery cable, what size wire we need, should it be connected to the house bank, or should it have one of it's own, as well as where should it be located.
We decided to run it directly from the house battery bank, under the settee, where the chart drawers were. He installed all the necessary wiring, and charging bank, ran the wiring from Max directly to its own breaker box, and Max feeds now off the house bank, which is separate from the starting batteries. There was a tremendous amount of figuring out the whole process, one step at a time.
  Alot of the thinking went on where and how to put Max. The Cap'n thought of a bunch of scenarios, of which we decided that Max be just off center of the bow, to allow the chain to be brought straight out of the water, and down the pipe to the chain locker.  We have hundreds of feet of chain, that the Cap'n is glad he doesn't ever have to pull up and feed the chain locker by hand again... 8-)
  The last part is the hatch for the locker itself.  He cut the hatch door in half, and fiberglassed in a new support section from above and below the deck.  We will paint the hatch also when we paint the new non~skid on, later, when I finish getting the last of the non~skid off.  Which I will get done by the end of this week. I hope, , ,
  More on the non~skid later, bunkmate