Tag Archives: superwinch

Solenoid for Superwinch

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solenoid for superwinch - closeup view

The solenoid for the superwinch, mounted in a waterproof box on the starboard aft railing of our flybridge.

solenoid for superwinch

A wider angle view of the superwinch solenoid mounted on the starboard aft railing of our flybridge.

Another rainy, cold and gloomy day! Heavy rain and gusty wind at times today, but a few breaks allowed Jim an opportunity to get started on the wiring for the electric winch. Today he mounted the solenoid for the Superwinch.

The solenoid is the interface between the battery and the winch. It controls the winch operation. The remote control is connected to the solenoid, allowing the user to operate the winch using the remote.

We found a Pelican-like waterproof box at West Marine for housing the solenoid. The box is made out of polycarbonate and measures 6”x5”x2”. Jim fastened it to the starboard aft railing on our flybridge, near the mast and just above where the dinghy is stored on deck.

The next step will be to run the wiring that will connect to the battery and battery charger.

Superwinch arrives!

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Jim unpacking the Superwinch and battery charger

Jim unpacking the Superwinch and battery charger

We now have gathered all the piece parts for replacing our manual dinghy-lifting winch with a new electric version. The Superwinch and battery charger that we ordered from Amazon arrived this week, and Jim bought the Optima battery at a local Bend auto supply store.

Superwinch package

Superwinch package

We hooked up everything in our garage in a test mode to check that it works. It does! Now we can pack it up to take it to the boat next week when we head up to Anacortes. After we get settled on the boat, we will tackle the actual project of installing the new winch system.

Superwinch and charger

Superwinch and charger

Testing the Superwinch, battery, and battery charger

Testing the Superwinch, battery, and battery charger

Early season preparations

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Still working on selecting and styling a WordPress theme for this blog…but think I’m getting closer! I haven’t moved last year’s blog entries from blogger.com yet, but that’s on my list to do soon.

Phoenix is scheduled to be hauled out in Anacortes within the next couple of weeks. The boatyard people at Marine Servicenter have hauled our boat for us in years past and taken good care of her, so we have asked them to come get our boat from our slip at Anacortes Marina and haul her out for us while we are at home in Bend. It’s great that they’ll do that for us! They will put on a fresh coat of bottom paint, replace zincs and clean up the underwater metal…then they will return Phoenix to our slip. We plan to travel to Anacortes in about 3 weeks, and it will be nice to have that work done when we get there.

For now, we are focusing on getting house projects wrapped up and organizing the stuff we want to bring with us for the summer. It’s always a challenge! We’re also beginning on our first boat project…or at least gathering up the piece parts. We’ve decided it’s time to replace our hand-cranking operation for launching and hauling our dinghy on and off the aft deck. The manual winch is just getting to be too much! Jim has been researching electric winches that will fit on our boom, and has settled on a Superwinch Terra 25-SR that we can order from Amazon. He plans to set up the system to run on an Optima D34 55A battery that will be charged by a Noco Genius 10A marine battery charger.