Lewmar ProSeries 1000 rope jamming

[NComfort]

We purchased a new Lewmar ProSeries 1000 windlass in May, 2024. New 9/16" 3 strand rope, 5/16" G4 chain. Since new when retrieving the anchor as the windlass starts to lift the chain off the bottom the rope jams in the gypsy and stalls the windlass. The only way to release it is to back it down. It will not retrieve the last 10 feet of rope to the splice. We have to pull it in by hand and get the chain on the gypsy and then retrieve the anchor. The chain runs fine, putting the anchor down works fine it just that last bit of rope when there is weight on it. The rope is straight down with no pull on it other than the weight of the chain.

Have contacted the chandlery where we purchased it and they have contacted Lewmar without any success at finding a solution. They are going to send us a new rope stripper kit that we will change but there doesn't seem there is anything wrong with the one currently on the windlass. Short of that they will replace the whole windlass.

Does anyone have any other suggestions as to what might cause this? We have changed the rope completely to eliminate the possibility of defective rope. Thank you.

 

[RedRascal]

I have no experience with that particular windlass however I wonder if it would perform better with 8-plait line instead of 3-strand. Maybe you could test by switching the 3-strand for 25' of 8-plait to just run a test to see if the same behavior happens with the 8-plait. Since the issue happens before the splice you could just shackle the 8-plait to the chain and leave the 3-strand in place. For the test you can send chain and both lines over but you would only put the load on the 8-plait. Good luck!

 

[Marco Flamingo]

We have actually started having trouble going with 8-plait. The inside of our Muir vertical windlass isn't super smooth and 8-plait tends to snag on little things. The rode to chain splice is fatter than just the 8-plait. The combination causes the splice to jam and backs up the chain. It actually damaged the "pressure finger" that is supposed to help the line/chain stay in the gypsy. Had to order a replacement part and wait several days in Campbell River last year.

We still have been having a person (wife) go to the locker, I stop the rode/chain splice at the right place, and then she pulls on the rode when the transition goes through the gypsy. What I'm wondering is if a "professional splice" might be tighter/smaller and feed through the windlass better. From what I've seen on the internet, my DIY looks just the same as the pros. Frustrating.

 

[NComfort]

Update. After changing both the stripper and the gypsy the rope still jams so we are going to replace the rope with all chain. The boat can handle the weight and the anchor locker will accommodate the chain. Our dock neighbour had the same issue with a different model Lewmar. He changed to 8 plait and it still jammed. We will be looking to Lewmar to reimburse us for the rope since the windlass doesn’t perform as advertised. We’ll see how that works out.

Marco you might try “rolling” the splice. Either get it out on the dock or on deck and roll it with your foot like you are rolling a log.

 

[Capt Ray]

The missing piece of critical information here is, "Which gypsy do you have?"

Here are a couple blog posts where I make observations about 2 gypsy sizes, stamps, and how smoothly they have worked with different rodes, in my experience:

Project Day

With a boat, it often feels like most every day is a project day! But when your boat is on the hard, you gotta find someone else’s project to work on! So today, I assisted Gene Rutkowski of Galene …

shellerina.com

New Lewmar V3 Windlass

New Lewmar V3 Windlass deployed on our 2000 Mainship 390. Click below for a video. Lewmar’s 003 Gypsy seems to be much smoother than the 002 Gypsy we had before with our 3/8” chain. The V3 is norma…

shellerina.com

Lewmar's website has a large PDF Catalogue with all their gypsies listed with chain / rope sizes. It should be consulted. However, I did not find it "quite as useful" in real-life as I expected. e.g. my 3/8" chain worked through the 002 gypsy, but it was not smooth, and frequently required a "back and forth" unjamming. The 003 was much smoother for 3/8" ... and my friend's 5/16" chain is very smooth through his 002 gypsy. I realize, your story is more one with ROPE problems, than chain. I'm just saying that experimenting with different gypsy sizes and different rope might be necessary... or asking the forum(s) for their size / observations.

 

[NComfort]

We did confirm the gypsy was the correct one and Lewmar did supply a second one to replace the first just in case there was some flaw in the original. There was no change and the rope continued to jam. The 5/16" G4 chain works perfectly. Had we not had warranty to fall back on we could have experimented with different gypsies. Thanks for your comments.

 

[AKDoug]

I started have retrieve issues with my 12 years old LoFrans Project 1000 slipping the three strand line the last year or so. I decided the chainwheel was worn from pulling the chain with a twist in it, 50' of chain and 450' 5/8" nylon. Bought a new pressure finger kit and chainwheel, hopefully that will restore the perfect performance I had previously.