In 2015 the plywood anchor windlass shelf on Tangleberry rotted out and broke. I decided to repair it permanently, I never liked the wooden shelf. At first it seemed OK but I fitted a Rocna anchor because the original Bruce kept dragging in mud. The Rocna digs in fast and if you are moving at all makes a big jerk on the windlass. This caused the plywood to crack and after several years fracture. When we took it out is was rotting in the areas of the cracks and where the bolts for the windlass passed through.
The new bracket will outlast the boat.
I designed an aluminum mounting bracket in 6mm 5052 alloy. A local shop (Manntech) fabricated it for me at very reasonable cost. The most expensive job was removing the traces of the old wooden shelf and cleaning and repainting the inside of the locker. I could have done it myself but I hate grinding fiberglass.
Anyway, the new bracket runs down the center of the locker and doesn’t touch the sides at all. The forces on a winch are primarily upward at the back and downward at the front. My bracket bolts through the chain locker bulkhead aft and the lip of the locker forward. It is far stronger and more solid than the original wood shelf which always flexed under load. There is no movement now at all.
This bracket was designed for the Lofrans Cayman 88 windlass which was factory installed. The original remote was damaged by water ingress so I mounted foot switches aft of the windlass.
