The Good and Bad News About a New Electric Windlass

The good news is that there are a lot of quality electric windlasses on the market, they keep looking cooler, and there can be some hot deals. For a 40-foot boat, you can get a decent one for just over $1000, at the low end.

The bad news is that the cost of the windlass is just the beginning. I’ve had several customers express pronounced sticker shock when they hear the rest of the story.

You’ll need a foot switch, a breaker, various lugs, connectors, a solenoid, mounting hardware et al. Some manufacturers include a lot of this; others don’t. A couple hundred bucks goes fast when you’re buying the high amperage components you need for a windlass.

Now the real biggie: The windlass is usually located at the bow (duh) and the ship’s batteries are usually somewhere aft. To connect those batteries to the high-amperage windlass you’ll need some thick cables. You can easily use sixty to eighty feet of cable on a medium-sized sailboat, and cable in the 1-2/0 range runs $5-$8 per foot. You could easily spend $400 just on wire...ouch.

Hot tip: If you don’t mind all your cabling being the same color (black with red tape on the positive side seems common for DIYers...I can't get away with this because I'm a "pro"), buy a 50 or 100 foot roll and save off buying by the foot…and have some left over for replacing your battery cables.

The other option is for the windlass to have its own dedicated battery in the bow. This saves you from buying all that heavy cable, but it also puts a lot of weight up where you don’t want it. With the windlass battery in the bow, you just need to run some smaller wires forward to charge it, but you still have to buy, and maintain, this battery. I sailed halfway around the world with batteries in the bow (24-volt windlass on a 12-volt boat…don’t ask) before I got fed up, spent $400 on wire, and lightened the bow by a hundred pounds.

In short, when tempted by the low price of a sexy and labor-saving electric windlass, double the price, at least, and you’ll have it about right.