Electric windlass refurbishment

We bought Spook, our Dufour 40 new in 2004. She’s an excellent sailing boat and we have been cruising with her over the past 15 years around the English Channel and between southern Ireland and La Rochelle. We often like to anchor in sheltered waters when it’s settled and have given the boat’s original Quick windlass a fair amount of use over the years.

In 2017 the windlass started running very slow and then speeding up. Clearly, it was time to open it up and take a look. The