Just purchased a 2006 Jeanneau 42 from Croatia and needed to deliver it to Cyprus about 1200 nm. I did a cursory pre-inspection survey, and when it came to the windlass, I pressed the remote up and down at the dock and all seemed to work well.
During my long (three week) delivery through the Greek Islands, the windlass started slipping when retrieving. Had many instances where the chain had to be retrieved with the winch manually or hand pulling on the chain. I was ready to order a new windlass after arrival at destination. The drum was pulled many times to inspect but no obvious issue. Is seemed that the clutch was slipping because the motor was working fine. At the end of the trip and after two weeks of recovery from the journey, I pulled the assembly schematic from the owners manual and started disassembling the entire windlass down to the deck. After careful examination, it became obvious that a washer was missing from the bottom of the assembly which would hold the gypsy and clutches a few mm higher. It was a special shape washer so I went to the authorized distributor in Cyprus (Quick Antares windlass) and luckily he found one in his shop!! After installing the 5 eu washer/spacer it all worked fine. Then I realized that I had to grease all parts per the manual, so I removed all parts again keeping the assembly instruction handy just in case. After greasing, I installed all parts and tighten down everything real tight, and when I pressed the button at the end...the clutch did not work again and obviously I started cursing... and when I moved my leg from the deck, I realized that I forgot to re-install the washer. The story had a happy ending after reversing everything and installing the washer at the bottom!!
During my long (three week) delivery through the Greek Islands, the windlass started slipping when retrieving. Had many instances where the chain had to be retrieved with the winch manually or hand pulling on the chain. I was ready to order a new windlass after arrival at destination. The drum was pulled many times to inspect but no obvious issue. Is seemed that the clutch was slipping because the motor was working fine. At the end of the trip and after two weeks of recovery from the journey, I pulled the assembly schematic from the owners manual and started disassembling the entire windlass down to the deck. After careful examination, it became obvious that a washer was missing from the bottom of the assembly which would hold the gypsy and clutches a few mm higher. It was a special shape washer so I went to the authorized distributor in Cyprus (Quick Antares windlass) and luckily he found one in his shop!! After installing the 5 eu washer/spacer it all worked fine. Then I realized that I had to grease all parts per the manual, so I removed all parts again keeping the assembly instruction handy just in case. After greasing, I installed all parts and tighten down everything real tight, and when I pressed the button at the end...the clutch did not work again and obviously I started cursing... and when I moved my leg from the deck, I realized that I forgot to re-install the washer. The story had a happy ending after reversing everything and installing the washer at the bottom!!