add another project to the list

Part of painting the decks is stripping off deck fittings that will prove difficult to work around.  One such deck fitting is the Sea Tiger 555 windlass.  The windlass is a mechanical winch that assists us in hauling and generally managing the anchor rodes.  Here is an image of the windlass rigged with two rodes as we prepared for Hurricane Earl last summer.

We are very pleased with the windlass and she works well, but judging by the peeling paint some maintenance is due.  The Lovetts were in town to celebrate Anne's birthday so I recruited Bud to assist with  removing the windlass from C'est la Vie's bow.

 Extricating the windlass progressed smoothly.  The only surprise was the existence the second hole in the deck, likely the original  hawse hole for the anchor rode.  We will properly glass in a patch prior to progressing with painting the decks.  Since the hole is covered by the windlass, I'm not too worried about the cosmetics, but structurally I'm not fond of having two large holes in the the foredeck that are less the an inch apart.

My plan is to refinish the cast aluminum windlass body.  This process will likely involve sandblasting.  In preparation for sandblasting the inner gears/mechanism will need to be removed.   Here is an image of the port side of the windlass. 

Being a creature of habit I have created a web album to record the progress of this project - Refinishing the Windlass