I think that I’m probably the “odd ball” in the windlass department because I’m in the process of getting things together to install a manual windlass on my E32-3. The anchor pan or “bucket” as I like to call it, because on the E-32 it’s very deep, always seemed like an afterthought to me for the Ericson designers. A proper anchor locker would have been nice but I guess because the E32 is considered a “racer/cruiser” anchoring was way down on the list. But we gotta work with what we have and so I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to install some kind of windlass to help my 70+ year old back. First I thought about how and where I sail and cruise, which is the Chesapeake Bay. I doubt that I’ll be making any round the world cruises in my E32 even though it would be a great adventure. Mostly I day sail out of Annapolis or visiting a marina as a transient where anchoring isn’t an issue with a temporary slip. But I do like dropping the hook someplace too and there are plenty of places on the Chesapeake Bay to do it.
So going through the expense and bother to install an electric windlass for anchoring a small percentage of my time didnt make sense to me but, like I said, I still wanted help weighing the hook. So rather then bothering with all the wiring, switches and extensive modifications to the anchor space I decided to mount a Lofrans Royal manual windlass just behind the anchor locker door. Normally they are meant to drop the chain right into a haws pipe adjacent to the windlass but can’t do that on a E32. Instead I’m mounting it on top of a 2 inch thick block of teak that will allow the chain some space to drop to the deck where I can simply kick it into the locker. Yes, it’s slower then an electric but these things hardly ever break and so are very dependable.
I plan to do a blog about it all since there is nothing about doing this to a E32 on this site aside from photos of a past install but not of a Royal manual windlass. Look for it in the months to come. Like I said, I’m gathering all the pieces now.