New 32CB. Fixes and Upgrades

[Turn Me Loose]

New boat owner. 2026 Cutwater 32CB. Lithium House Power. Made the Inside Passage route from Anacortes to Sitka in June. I am thinking about a few upgrades / changes and would welcome input:

1. Anchoring. The Lewmar 1000 Windlass is sufficient for any cove anchoring, but falls short when fishing for halibut (in 300+ feet of water). Part of the challenge has to do with the need for so much rode; the anchor locker is too full and jams the windlass. Nerve-wracking to fix in heavy seas. Has anyone added an after-market drum-winch like the Lone Star GX5? Did you have to upgrade the wiring? Does it block your view?

2. Fish box. The fish box (port) has no fiberglass lip nor drainage channel so it fills whenever it rains. And it rains a lot here. Any cost-effective successes in fixing this design flaw?

3. Fusion radio. I am on my second Fusion radio unit. Dead. I stopped trying to troubleshoot and just use a bluetooth speaker. There's a Garmin repair service in Petersburg, AK I plan to use when I go in for the next 100-hour servicing . But is this a common challenge with newer Fusion units or 32CB wiring?

Thanks for any suggestions.
Peter

 

[LoudMuffin]

That’s a heck of a shakedown trip for a new boat. Anacortes to Sitka should expose the little things pretty quickly.


For the halibut gear, I’d personally lean toward a separate hauler rather than asking the anchor windlass to do double duty. If the real problem is the rode piling up and jamming the locker, more pulling power alone may not solve it anyway.


The fish box sounds like something that really should have had a lip or drain channel from the factory. I’d be interested to see what other 32CB owners have done there before cutting anything.


And with two Fusion units dying, I’d definitely have the shop check voltage, grounds and moisture at the harness before just plugging in a third one. Two failures in a row would make me suspicious of the installation as much as the radio.

 

[Cutwater28GG]

RE fusion,

are they still wiring the fusion to power the NMEA network on the C32? if so perhaps its causing premature failure?
ive not heard of repeat failures- im going on 14 years on mine. but its an older model