Bavaria 39 (2006) Windlass Wiring

[Lazy Pelican]

We have a Lewmar Pro Series Windlass fitted from new- I'm not sure if it was factory fit or part of commisioning. Anyway it's to lightweight for use in the Med (we've burnt out 2 motors so far) & I'm considering replacing it with a Lofrans Cayman.
I think the boat is (factory wired? ) 35mm2, but according to the Lofrans  data this needs upgrading to about 50mm2.
Has anyone retro fitted a Cayman Winch & if so did you rewire?

Thanks,
John

[Yngmar]

Actually the installation manual says 35mm² is fine for cable runs up to 12.5m (per wire, so 25m when you add up positive and negative):

[Roissy]

Hi I am preping a B 37 for the Med and need to retro fit a Windlass what Wattage motor did you Rwear out ?

[Lazy Pelican]

The Lewmar has a 700w motor. I'd suggest a Lofrans Cayman with a 1000w motor.

[Lazy Pelican]

Thanks Yngmar. Somewhere I'd read that for boats 12m + the wiring size should be increased by 30% but I can't find it now.
Now I need to confirm that the wire is 35mm2, which means taking panels out!

[Salty]

Thanks Yngmar.....
Now I need to confirm that the wire is 35mm2, which means taking panels out!

Surely the thing to do before "taking panels out" is to open your electric control panel door, locate your windlass solenoid, which on my B36 is just inside on a large board next to the vessels hull, and measure the size of the heavy cables that carry the current from the solenoid to your windlass. Nothing else needs to be removed.

[Lazy Pelican]

I removed the panel in the forepeak to access the cables at the connection with the windlass motor tails. I wanted to measure the voltage at this point and check the connections.
I can confirm that the boat is factory wired 35mm2, with a voltage drop of about 0.5amp between the battery and the bulkhead connection.

I plan to fit a Lofrans Winch next spring.
If anyone's already done this I'd be interested to know.

John

[Ziffius]

Hi John, mine had the Lofrans on it when I bought it. Seems powerful enough. Back on the boat in 2 weeks time if you want me to look at anything in particular

[Lazy Pelican]

Ziffius - thanks that's reassuring.
I wanted to make sure it fits on the existing shelf in the anchor locker. Presumably your's is the standard factory wiring.

[Ziffius]

Yep as far as I know.

[Lazy Pelican]

Hi Ziffius,

I've been looking at the differences in the wiring between my Lewmar and the Lofrans.
I have pos & neg into the control box & pos / neg from CB to windlass.
The Lofrans Wiring Dig shows Pos into the CB and to the Windlass, but a Neg from battery direct to windlass and then another Neg back to the CB (ie no Neg into the CB). This means I have to run an additional 35mm2 cable. This means there are 3 power cables to the windlass.
Could you check that yours is wired this way?

Also the Lofrans circuit breaker has what looks like 2 control wires to it, which my present set up doesn't. Any idea what they are for?

[Lyra]

Although I have a Lofrans I never looked deeply into the electric diagrams till now.
Anyhow, Looked at the diagrams of both and  it seems that they work differently.

The Lewmar seems to have a single motor winding and a toggle switch which reverses the polarity - so it uses only two wires.
The Lofrans seems to have two motor windings, one per direction, with a common minus and the control box energizes each winding separately.
It might be possible to install the control box closer to the bow so you will be able to use the existing wires + 2 short wires between control box and motor.

The circuit breaker also looks to be operating differently - the Lewmar is a "simple" over current breaker while the Lofrans seems to have also a control wire  from the control box - probably some kind of "trip" or "disable/enable" function. But as far as I remember I have a simple inline 100A fuse, so maybe this is not really necessary. Will try to inspect it more closely next time I am on the boat

[Lazy Pelican]

Thanks Lyra.
I think I've pretty much got to the bottom of the wiring. I need to run a new negative cable direct from the battery to the windlass motor. My query is can I run it from the 10mm dia terminal post in the battery compartment or should it be from the shunt. If from the shunt which side?

John.

[Nigel]

If your shunt can take the current, then connect to the non-battery side. If not, expect a can of worms unless you are very careful about connecting "negative" wires; do not allow the battery negative to connect with the non-battery side of the shunt.

[Lazy Pelican]

Thanks everyone.
I've decided to use the existing Negative connection and run a new positive from the control box to the windlass.

John