Lewmar Pro Sport 550

[Brian John]

Our 2-year-old Lewmar Pro Sport windlass failed on our R23, I replaced the complete windlass and ordered a new motor to rebuild the 2-year-old windlass (to use on our R-31). I have read other posts regarding failure issues of the Lewmar Prosport. Has anyone replaced the stock windlass with a unit less prone to water intrusion and failure? If so what m=brand and model?

The motor housing had water in it when I opened it, I tested the motor and it was defective the windings shorted. Just seems two years is a very short life.

On a side note, I am selling the R23 (so I needed the windlass ASAP) and was 5 miles from Lewmars headquarters, but they would not sell me the windlass as they do not have counter sales. I had to order the new windlass from West Marine and wait 3 days for delivery. Replacing was simple, though it did require some boat yoga.

 

[glider4]

I had an older Lewmar Pro Series 1000 winch on my R-25 Classic. It was still going strong after 13 seasons of heavy use when I sold the boat. My C-28 has the same model Lewmar and it’s going strong after six seasons. Yes, I spend an hour or two every year doing routine maintenance on the windlass. I believe that with reasonable care the Pro 1000 should go a decade or more.

 

[jack_patricia]

Brian, there are several other threads that also discuss Lewmar windlass failure due to that clam shell design and water penetration over time. Another member here posted that he found the same thing - a shorted motor - and after rebuilding the windlass, he applied some UV resistant tape over the seam inbetween the two housing halves. IME - cruising sailboats - having a windlass cover to prevent this kind of thing was a norm. But in the absence of that practice, the 'seam tape' approach made good sense to me. Not too hard to replace the tape each year.

 

[Brian John]

I did buy a windlass cover.

 

[kelpline]

I had an older Lewmar Pro Series 1000 winch on my R-25 Classic. It was still going strong after 13 seasons of heavy use when I sold the boat. My C-28 has the same model Lewmar and it’s going strong after six seasons. Yes, I spend an hour or two every year doing routine maintenance on the windlass. I believe that with reasonable care the Pro 1000 should go a decade or more.

My Cutwater 28 (2011) has a Lewmar Pro Series1000 and my ears perked up when you said annual maintenance! I am working on removing the cover, quite tight space to remove the socket cap screws, and then there's the cover. If the gears need lubricant, one would expect a stainless grease nipple mounted to the outside. What do you think of drilling a hole, and emptying a can of TriFlow, and pluging the hole with a washer and cap screw or marine goo?

 

[NorthernFocus]

I recently repaired my profish 1000. Wrote up details of what was wrong and how I fixed it in another thread(link below). Following is an excerpt relevant to this discussion:

Lewmar ProFish 1000 repair.
In 2020 we replaced the windlass on our 2009 model R25. Had replaced the windlass motor(seized up) in 2016 and new that a complete overhaul would be needed this time so elected to replace the windlass completely. At time of the motor repair the windlass had a lot of water in it as is typically reported when people open them up. The new windlass installed in 2020 was a "gen 3" model with improved gasket on the split line. The windlass locked up while deploying the anchor on our first trip of this season. It would turn about 15 degrees in either direction then seize. I was really disappointed that we only got five years of life out of it. Based on the symptoms and on my previous experience I assumed it was another motor failure. However when I opened it up the internals were in pristine condition with no moisture at all inside and no signs there had been any. And the motor was fine. So apparently the casing gasket in the gen 3 model is effective.

So it seems that the re-designed gasket on the gen 3 model of this windlass is effective. It looks like Lewmar has corrected the biggest complaint/source of failure on this model windlass.

Link to repair discussion: https://www.tugnuts.com/threads/what-did-you-work-on-fix-today.24375/page-6#post-158611

 

[NorthernFocus]

My Cutwater 28 (2011) has a Lewmar Pro Series1000 and my ears perked up when you said annual maintenance! I am working on removing the cover, quite tight space to remove the socket cap screws, and then there's the cover. If the gears need lubricant, one would expect a stainless grease nipple mounted to the outside. What do you think of drilling a hole, and emptying a can of TriFlow, and pluging the hole with a washer and cap screw or marine goo?

To properly grease a set of gears would take multiple grease fittings. Dumping in a can of triflow would likely be messy. Plus as important as greasing the gears is to make sure there is adequate lube to the bearings and to try and "seal" them with grease against potential water intrusion. Taking it apart will also give you a good sense of what sort of shape it's in. I suspect some of the water damage that is found in these units is due to condensation as much/more than water intrusion through the split line.