A Dainty Little Thing

Since sailing is off the menu until we get the spreader sorted I decided I would rip into repainting the windlass, a job I have been putting off for a long time.

My plan was to partially disassemble the windlass on the boat, then pull the whole thing off and take it to work for a full strip-down, then have all the painted body components stripped before either repainting in 2-pack or powder-coating.

Say, remember that time we thought we would pull the windlass apart and pull her off the boat? Ha ha ha ha ha...  man, what were we thinking?! Idiots...

Firstly, I pulled off the top drum, brake assemblies, clutch cones, etc. That was about 40kg of parts.

Next I pulled off the top-plate, top-drum drive gear (about another 10kg) and pumped out all the gear oil.

Then (after a fair bit of head-scratching) I pulled off the motor assembly. Bloody hell! That was a good 50kg -60kg.

Then came time to remove the main housing. Yeah, right...  I estimate the stripped down unit probably still ways around 70kg-80kg, and has been bolted down in a bed of mastic. About the only way we are getting that baby off is with a crane. After much effort with crowbars and such we decided, yes, we will strip and paint her in place, that seems like a much better idea...

So, this should be fun. But man, Kamalii's windlass is a BEAST.

Yep, she needs some love. Here I have already stripped off the top drum, brake and clutch assemblies.

Seriously heavy gear set.

Motor assembly. Fuck-Ing-Heavy. For scale, on end it comes up past my knees.

Stay tuned, this should be interesting...