Skip navigation

Monthly Archives: December 2014

The Anchor Windlass Fusible Link is hidden just under the lip of the forward head floor!

The Anchor Windlass Fusible Link is hidden just under the lip of the forward head floor!

With the weather finally warmed up above freezing, the water had been turned back on, so I was hooking up the water hose when I noticed a big pile of anchor chain jammed up in front of the windlass. Hmmmmm, it had me wondering how the heck that had happened and a quick check showed the windlass wouldn’t turn either direction.

I pulled up the floor panels in the Guest Stateroom and Guest Head and eventually located an 80 amp fusible link that had failed. It was well hidden under the lip of the floor over the bow thruster. I checked my spares and didn’t haven any fuses that small, so checked West Marine ($20) and Amazon (2 for $5), and I’m sure you can figure out which one I ordered.

Then I went around the boat, checking the windlass control stations and discovered the aft station (in the cockpit) was engaged by the weight of a dive tank fill whip that had been draped over the canvas cover for the control station. Damn It Scott!!

The forward Thruster Well on a Nordhavn 47 is found below the floor of the guest Head.

The forward Thruster Well on a Nordhavn 47 is found below the floor of the guest Head.

I rectified the issue with the fill whip, then spent some time and brute force to get the chain unjammed from the chain stripper and windlass. Eventually, I was able to get everything put back together like it should be and I replaced the 80 amp fusible link. Fortunately, that restored windlass functionality and taught me two important lessons.

1. I typically leave the power on to the Windlass as a safety measure in case it needs to be deployed or recovered in an emergency. Now I’m thinking I should disconnect the power when I’m here at the dock (even though the breaker is hard to get to).

2. Don’t set things on top of the aft control station unless you want a big pile of anchor chain jammed up on the foredeck. All I can say about that one, is DOH!!!