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GoWindlass


roggie

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If you're going to get one, do it before this company, like several predecessors, disappears since the sheer cost means they don't get sufficient sales to be able to continue.

They seem like a good idea, but the eye watering cost is enough to make me shy away. I'll wait for the rechargeable electric version (with light for night use).

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'Ordinary' windlasses are £20-£30 (https://www.midlandchandlers.co.uk/search.aspx?q=Windlass) so the £80 isn't that 'eye watering' given the advantages it offers those who struggle with some locking mechanisms. Like lots of boats things it's worth paying good money if it makes your journey appreciably better, and it's not a often purchased item. Of course how long it 

lasts is still to be determined but it does seem to be manufactured in quality material.

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7 hours ago, manxmike said:

If you're going to get one, do it before this company, like several predecessors, disappears since the sheer cost means they don't get sufficient sales to be able to continue.

They seem like a good idea, but the eye watering cost is enough to make me shy away. I'll wait for the rechargeable electric version (with light for night use).

To be fair, if it is any good the "Go Windlass" is perhaps half the price of some ratchet windlasses offered in the past.

If it works, and doesn't break, I don't think it is particularly expensive for what it is.

 

Not having seen one in the flesh, I should perhaps not express doubts, but it looks rather short on metal around the non ratcheting eye to me, and perhaps a bit under-engineered overall.  That said people who exert huge forces on windlasses are unlikely to be using one, and they are likely to only usually used by those who struggle to use an ordinary one.

Edited by alan_fincher
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15 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

Not having seen one in the flesh, I should perhaps not express doubts, but it looks rather short on metal around the non ratcheting eye to me, and perhaps a bit under-engineered overall.  That said people who exert huge forces on windlasses are unlikely to be using one, and they are likely to only usually used by those who struggle to use an ordinary one.

And of course more metal would increase the weight. The fixed eye is intended for winding down, so shouldn't normally experience major stresses. Being a very short throw, it makes dropping the paddle very quick, too. My main concern is the ratchet itself, but time will tell. IME, cheap socket set ratchets are prone to jam after a while, presumably as a result of wear of the pawl.

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2 hours ago, BruceinSanity said:

And of course more metal would increase the weight. The fixed eye is intended for winding down, so shouldn't normally experience major stresses.

Yes, but when you are using the ratchet eye, all the forces associated with doing so are still being passed through the two sides of the fixed eye.

Actually looking at it again, given it relies heavily on castings, quite a bit of it doesn't look that robust to me.

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1 hour ago, alan_fincher said:

Yes, but when you are using the ratchet eye, all the forces associated with doing so are still being passed through the two sides of the fixed eye.

Actually looking at it again, given it relies heavily on castings, quite a bit of it doesn't look that robust to me.

True, o King. Time will tell!

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5 hours ago, roggie said:

Of course how long it 

lasts is still to be determined but it does seem to be manufactured in quality material.

 

It lasts until you leave it behind at a lock.

 

I am GREAT at this and they vanish even if you return 15 minutes later. I buy them in bulk on ebay, usually for about a tenner or 15 squids each.

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Just now, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

It lasts until you leave it behind at a lock.

 

I am GREAT at this and they vanish even if you return 15 minutes later. I buy them in bulk on ebay, usually for about a tenner or 15 squids each.

I just get mine from boaters who leave them behind at locks :)

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12 hours ago, manxmike said:

If you're going to get one, do it before this company, like several predecessors, disappears since the sheer cost means they don't get sufficient sales to be able to continue.

They seem like a good idea, but the eye watering cost is enough to make me shy away. I'll wait for the rechargeable electric version (with light for night use).

 

That's a fair point, however in the 2 months we've been using it (virtually every day) the wife has had so many people admiring it, asking about it, and saying they must get one. Whether many of them will do so of course is another matter but if a fair few do then that would auger well well for the future of the company that makes/sells them.

 

And if they make and sell a lot of them the cost of production might come down and probably the price as a result.

 

A few of the husbands have said something along the lines of 'well that's sorted her birthday present then'. I reckon husbands/partners are going to agree to purchasing one rather than seeing their partners struggle.

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1 hour ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

It lasts until you leave it behind at a lock.

 

 

 

I just tell her that if she loses it she won't be getting another one. That seems to work (so far).

 

Incidentally, I keep meaning to test if my sea magnet is strong enough to lift it. I think it is.

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139 posts... what did I start? Time will tell as to how robust it is, hopefully it should last a few years, if not more and if it does have a weakness someone will come up with something better, how about a titanium windlass.... I guess there must be a price ceiling and perhaps its £80 which covers postage. I wonder how many locks the 'average' boater goes through and so the benefit for those who operate the locks - I've not done any locks on the Huddersfield/Rochdale and have been told that these are stiffer so a cost benefit might be higher on these locks rather than the relatively well maintained ones on the southern GU. Let's revisit the thread in a year(s) time as to the effectiveness of the racket mechanism.

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9 hours ago, roggie said:

I've not done any locks on the Huddersfield/Rochdale and have been told that these are stiffer so a cost benefit might be higher on these locks rather than the relatively well maintained ones on the southern GU.

I've notr done the Huddersfield, but would suggest some selected paddles on the Southern GU are at least as bad as most on the Rochdale.

 

I don't struggle with many paddles (although I find them harder than in my youth), but for example those on Buckby Bottom lock, bottom gates are particularly appalling now.

 

Stoke Bruerne, which used to be an easy flight now has some pretty bad paddles as well.

 

The solution would be for CRT to make them work as they should, so anybody of reasonable strength can wind them up by continuous rotation.  It shouldn't be necessary for people to have to buy some device that was never envisaged as necessary when the mechanisms were designed.

 

One of the issues may well be that wooden paddles have largely been replaced by plastic ones, some of which distort under the head of water, and hence need more force to drag over the openings in the gates.

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5 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

I've notr done the Huddersfield, but would suggest some selected paddles on the Southern GU are at least as bad as most on the Rochdale.

 

 

Having bought ours at the Crick show in May before heading south, my wife has used it on the Southern GU, the Paddington Arm, the Regents Canal, and now on the South Oxford. Like with all canals the stiffness of the paddle gear has varied but there have been plenty where she'd have really struggled with a normal windlass.

 

She had major heart surgery just over a year ago and her ribs are still a bit delicate so although she loves working the locks she wasn't able to do any until she got this. She hasn't worked them all on this trip but it has meant we can now share the task once again like we used to.

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2 hours ago, alan_fincher said:

The solution would be for CRT to make them work as they should, so anybody of reasonable strength can wind them up by continuous rotation. 

 

But given current management style, the more likely solution will be erection of a large blue and white sign saying:

 

"WARNING, STIFF PADDLES - DO NOT OPERATE UNLESS EQUIPPED WITH RATCHET WINDLASS"

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22 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

But given current management style, the more likely solution will be erection of a large blue and white sign saying:

 

"WARNING, STIFF PADDLES - DO NOT OPERATE UNLESS EQUIPPED WITH RATCHET WINDLASS"

You forgot to add "AVAILABLE FROM CRT AT A BARGAIN PRICE OF £120.00 + VAT"

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On 20/07/2018 at 20:07, Robbo said:

I just get mine from boaters who leave them behind at locks :)

Me too

:)

28 minutes ago, manxmike said:

You forgot to add "AVAILABLE FROM CRT AT A BARGAIN PRICE OF £120.00 + VAT"

And you forgot to add.

"Licence to operate ratchet windlass required."

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  • 1 year later...
On 20/07/2018 at 22:19, roggie said:

139 posts... what did I start? Time will tell as to how robust it is, hopefully it should last a few years, if not more and if it does have a weakness someone will come up with something better, how about a titanium windlass.... I guess there must be a price ceiling and perhaps its £80 which covers postage. I wonder how many locks the 'average' boater goes through and so the benefit for those who operate the locks - I've not done any locks on the Huddersfield/Rochdale and have been told that these are stiffer so a cost benefit might be higher on these locks rather than the relatively well maintained ones on the southern GU. Let's revisit the thread in a year(s) time as to the effectiveness of the racket mechanism.

And it's still working a year on as shown by your OH today, I'm tempted to get one too. Was great to share the locks with you. 

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3 years on and it's still working well, as you saw. The lockies at Foxton said that it was trialed there before going into production. 

Thanks for your company, didn't realise you were stopping when you were. Have a great onward journey & enjoy the Westvleteren. Sante.

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1 hour ago, roggie said:

3 years on and it's still working well, as you saw. The lockies at Foxton said that it was trialed there before going into production. 

Thanks for your company, didn't realise you were stopping when you were. Have a great onward journey & enjoy the Westvleteren. Sante.

We hadn't realised either but it looked good for the solar panels so made a snap decision. Bit busy with people and dogs, also hadn't realised it was a bank holiday. The muddled calendar of retirement! Knuffels.

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  • 2 weeks later...

We've just been out for a couple of weeks and my GoWindlass is as brilliant as ever. And I saw three or four in the hands of boaters we met at locks - all of them extolling its virtues and reporting they had bought at Crick this year. I see it now has a revolving casing on the handle (which I had suggested when I first got mine) but now I'm used to mine I'm just as happy without. No problems with it at all. And absolutely there is no way I'd leave it at a lock - the dog, the grandchild, the husband perhaps ..... but not the GoWindlass!!

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6 hours ago, Jo_ said:

We've just been out for a couple of weeks and my GoWindlass is as brilliant as ever. And I saw three or four in the hands of boaters we met at locks - all of them extolling its virtues and reporting they had bought at Crick this year. I see it now has a revolving casing on the handle (which I had suggested when I first got mine) but now I'm used to mine I'm just as happy without. No problems with it at all. And absolutely there is no way I'd leave it at a lock - the dog, the grandchild, the husband perhaps ..... but not the GoWindlass!!

Good, ain't they?

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