recomended electric anchor windlass - Bavaria 37 Cruiser 2006

[Ole Johansen]

Which are the recommended electric anchor windlass for a Bavaria 37 Cruiser from 2006?

[Yngmar]

Pretty happy with our Lofrans Cayman - very sturdy, powerful (40 Ocean) and not too slow either. Just make sure when fitting the rubber "moat" isn't retaining water (search for those keywords around here).

I've seen some pretty asthmatic windlasses on other boats that can barely pick up a small anchor in benign conditions and take ages to do so. If you like to do serious anchoring, an undersized windlass (or anchor) is the wrong place to save money.

[Symphony]

Another vote for the Cayman 88 Lofrans were Bavaria factory fit for many years until they went through a period of bankruptcy and restructuring. Now seem to be table and new windlasses and parts are freely available at competitive prices. As suggested, watch the rubber pad retaining water - some replace it with a piece of HDPE. The base is bare aluminium and sensible to paint it with an etch primer and epoxy. Also worth removing all the stainless screws and apply Duralac to the threads.

[Lazy Pelican]

Lofrans Cayman is the only sensible option. Our B39 came with a Lewmar Pro, which are really lightweight and not suitable for heavy use. Eventually we ditched our Lewmar and have never regretted the change.

[Rampage]

Boring I know but we’ve got a Lofrans Cayman as well.  Good solid bit of kit which has given us 11 years of trouble free anchoring.  It replaced an asthmatic no name winch that died about the third time we used it: the gear off the motor disintegrated.  Worthy spending the little bit more to get a decent winch, especially if you anchor a fair bit (we typically anchor 120 nights a year).