Sausage roll table of fame UPDATE

Well a new offering. I had the pleasure of sampling these magnificent sausage rolls twice; not that I needed a second tasting to decide these are the real deal. Judy has entered the table of fame at number 6 and in doing so has become the highest ranked amateur. Peter of "Novae" will be disappointed, however, given he is planning to catch us up who knows a bake-off may be in the offing. STAY TUNED!

Sausage rolls from Judy of 'Hurtle Turtle'

Servicing our Quick Antares Windlass/Anchor Winch

Let me say from the outset that I am not proud of the fact that I have needed to create this post. The condition of our windlass and the amount of servicing it required does not reflect well on my maintenance of this equipment. My only defence is that I did regularly check and service some elements, in particular the cone clutches so as to maintain manual operation if it was required. What I did not do is service the winch spindle apparatus nor the gear box. It was not that the winch was not telling me to do so because it had been leaking a small amount of water into the boat for some time. I should have heeded this warning and taken action much sooner. Luckily for us, we were on a jetty at The Boatworks when the leak became evident in the form of droplets on a ceiling fascia in the bow cabin during torrential rain. It was lucky we were aboard and with the use of a car, having just returned from an interstate trip following a family bereavement. It demanded immediate attention. What we found was HORRIFIC and a testament to the robustness of the equipment. How it was even operating, we don’t know!

BEFORE

Gear Box viewed from the top, revealing the mess created by water flowing down the spindle onto the top of the gear box.

Area indicated, reveals the worn and damaged oil seal that acts as a water seal to prevent water flowing down the spindle.

 Once the spindle was removed you can see that the bearing that should be in the area indicated,  had rusted away. The outer casing of the bearing was fixed into the winch housing and needed to be removed using a dremel tool. The circlips holding the bearings were also rusted onto the spindle and required some effort to remove.

 

AFTER

 

Top of the gear box, all cleaned up with new seals and bearings.

Side view of gear box after painting and a complete service.

The gear box and motor reunited, all clean and back in place. Just like it never happened.
 

The purpose of this post was twofold. Firstly, to warn other cruisers of the need to check the seals on the spindle and gear box on a regular basis and if any leaks are occurring, then dismantle and replace these seals. Secondly, to provide a detailed list of the parts required to reconstruct the spindle assembly and service the gear box. There was no need to provide a detailed step-by-step instruction on how to achieve the first aim because there is already an excellent video made by the skipper of "Cat Impi" that describes the process in great detail. Click the image below to view the video.

While this video was invaluable it did not contain a list of the specific parts that are needed to service the spindle and the gear box. This is not to criticise the video because depending on your specific windlass, these parts will or could vary from those used in the video. That being said, if your windlass is a 

Quick Antares AT 1012 (or equivalent) then these are the parts you will need:-

SPINDLE:

1 X Bearing ( 6005-2NKECM )

2 X Oil Seals ( Oil Seal 25*47*7 TC-NK7COCOO )

2 X stainless steel external circlips 25mm ( 1400-25SS )

2 X Stainless steel internal circlips ( 1300-47SS )

GEAR BOX:

2 X Bearings ( 16008-2RS )

2 X Oil Seals ( Oil Seal 98350 )

1 X Roll gasket paper ( 0.5mm )

In addition you will need a small quantity of gear box oil and Tef-Gel.

All of these items are readily available and are not ‘marine’ specific - read inexpensive. Our windlass rescue cost around $300AU and that included some tools. Cheap when compared with $3,000 for replacement! 

Special mention goes to Garry Kennedy from SV Ciao Bella who assisted with great knowledge, dedication, enthusiasm and good humour for this rainy weather job.