David. Hi.
If the moulding has been cut away there may be the possibility of retro fitting a windlass to the forward bulkhead (given that it may need additional reinforcement). As the 32's and 34's of the same era.
Many of these boats came standard without a windlass and were retro fitted in the UK by Clippers predecessors, to the customers orders.
This is a much simpler solution and can be done by a "novice" given some help and information.
You will need to make room for a dedicated battery under the forward berth. Also the changeover switch, relay, power cables and charge cables back to a splitter diode or charge switch.
Again a relatively simple job you could do.
You could power the windless from the domestic batteries, many people do but, this does have a disadvantage. If you pull the anchor in the morning or after a prolonged period at anchor when your batteries are low you can put an excessive load on an already low battery bank, even with the engine running.
Although the windless (should) never take the full load of the vessel at anchor (this should be taken by a snubbing line and chain hook fitted with rubber line snubber's), the mounting point must be sufficient to take the loads likely to be imposed when lifting the anchor + a safety factor of say 50-75%.
Additional strength could be gained by glassing in Marine ply in two sections to the existing bulkhead and hull and then fitting an aluminium plate on the inside of the inner bulkhead. You can hide this behind a picture TV or even a mirror if your
I have used this method on two 32's and a 34 one of which was my own boat. It was successful and worked well. Never cracked, creaked or gave cause for concern.
Hope this is of help.
Best regards.
Ant
