Hammer Time

A big problem arose on Profligate about two weeks ago after the Wanderer and Doña de Mallorca had spent the night on Harbor Reef, the approximate halfway point in their journey from San Diego to Santa Barbara. The trip was to position Profligate, the mothership, for the start of the fifth SoCal Ta-Ta.

The early morning start of the second leg was thwarted when the windlass refused to respond to the push of the button. All it did was go "click." Upon inspection there was no mystery, as the windlass motor appeared to be little more than a few bits of metal held together by large chunks of rust.

Still, the failure was a bit of a surprise, because part of Profligate’s maintenance regime during her long off-season is to have both engines started and the windlass given a little workout each week. The Wanderer believes that like human body parts, the more marine equipment is used, the better it works and the longer it lasts.

A malfunctioning windlass is not a good thing on Profligate, because she sports the biggest Fortress anchor there is. While it only weighs 55 pounds, its shank is nearly six feet long.

Normally the Wanderer would have just jerked the anchor off the bottom and onto the boat, but a sore right shoulder put this easy solution out of reach, so to speak.

As the Wanderer started to make preparations to try to retrieve the anchor 10 feet at a time by using a claw and an electric winch, he remembered that Fin Bevin, longtime Profligate crewmember on Baja Ha-Ha’s, was on his Cal 40 Radiant at nearby Howlands Landing. Knowing a third person would come in handy, we summoned Fin, and he even interrupted his breakfast preparations to come over.

As Fin and the Wanderer worked on refining the theoretical aspects of jury-rigging a system to raise the anchor with an electric windlass, de Mallorca remembered once hearing that sometimes recalcitrant electric motors could, like recalcitrant crew, be coaxed back to work by the tappings of a hammer-like instrument.

Being a woman, de Mallorca gave Fin a plastic mallet, the ‘lady’ version of a hammer. Fin gave the windlass motors a few taps, but that did nothing.

The Wanderer had never seen that ‘hit the electric motor with a hammer’ trick work, but said, “Since the motor isn’t working, it won’t hurt if you hit it like you mean it. Here, use the baby sledge.”

Fin, who is known as ‘FinGyver’ on Profligate for his ability to make sophisticated repairs of all kinds with the most improbable parts and basic tools, accepted the sledge. It was a more brutal tool than he’s used to using, but he gave the motor a couple of whacks.

Damn if that windlass motor didn’t respond by getting right back to work like it was supposed to! Sort of the mechanical version of ’spare the rod, spoil the child’.

We’ve gained new respect for the baby sledge, which an old captain of ours called the ‘International Tool’. Given its success with the windlass motor, we plan on employing it the next time other metal objects don’t perform as expected. You know, the diesel, the refrigeration, the outboard, the SSB, that kind of stuff.

If you’ve ever used a baby sledge to good effect on a boat, we’d like to hear about it.