Van.CL Bronze Man. Windlass

[goodbasil]

http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/va...450583275.html

[Pacific Woody]

Drool......but the mooring cover comes first. This week I was quoted over $5G for a sunbrella cover. DAMN! Time to dust off the home economics skills from grade 7 and sew my own.

[George Ray]

This looks like an ad for a manufacturer, perhaps indian or pakistani metalwork?

[Torna]

Looks like the ABI Windlass to me. They come up on Ebay regularly for a lot less $$$ than that.
-leif

[Bob Cleek]

Yea, it's one of ABI's. Chinese knockoff manufacture, I believe. They are quite nice looking, but I've heard folks cussing ABI over them when they have to be serviced. Corrosion "freezing" problems arise when you put bronze gears, etc., on stainless shafts and stainless bolts in threaded bronze holes (Asian stainless, at that) and leave them to get crusted with salt spray on a foredeck. Then there's the "bronze." I always suspected they were recycling Vietnam era shell casings...

ABI began here in the North Bay, first in Corte Madera, then they moved to Petaluma and now are up in Santa Rosa. I got a tour of their warehouse by one of the owners years ago. He explained that they were taking old out of production fittings from the classic suppliers like Wilcox Crittenden, South Coast, and Merriman and so on, and having them produced in China. Back then, I remember that being Taiwan. Peeps Republic wasn't exporting to us then like they do now. My impression was that the cast stuff wasn't bad at all, since a big hunkin' cleat is over engineered anyway, but I was leery of their mechanical stuff, and there wasn't much of that. (They didn't have the winch in their line back then.) Aside from the really gold plated stuff from Davey and Co. and Toplicht, ABI is a darn good alternative for cast bronze and stainless, though, and about the only game in town, other than the British and German lines.

[goodbasil]

I got an email from the seller. The windlass was made by the old Lunenburg Foundry in Nova Scotia. He got it in the mid 90's but his boat project fell through. He uses it for a paperweight in his office. It's never been used. The one in the photo is an ABI one.

[Don Kurylko]

Why didn’t he put up a picture of the real one? Lunenburg Foundry never made anything resembling the ABI winch as far as I know. Strange. Did he at least describe what it looks like?

[Bob Cleek]

It's a Lunenburg? Oh, for crap's sake, GRAB IT!!!!

[goodbasil]

Can you spot me $1,600-- so I can, "GRAB IT?" Is it a good buy? I don't know, I don't need it just c&p'ed it cause its my job.

[George Ray]

WOW! , We have a cast iron Luny and it is a wonderful beast.

[goodbasil]

I purchased the windlass from Lunenburg Foundry, a company in the province of Nova Scotia on the E. coast of Canada ... the company has since merged/gone out of business & is now known as Lunenburg Industrial Foundry & Engineering ... I bought it in the mid-90s at the time I was planning a classic wooden boat project in the mid-30' range (which unfortunately fell thru) ... the photo in my ad is of an identical windlass made by ABI (American company, since bankrupt or otherwise out of biz) ... the specs are identical & I suspect the Lunenburg boys were supplying ABI, who were just branding it as their own ... the Lunenburg folks are/were very much into no nonsense, workhorse, traditional stuff ... I have used the windlass as a paperweight/bookend in my office & it has never been used or mounted on a boat ... seems like a shame to have such a nice piece as a bit of yuppie brightwork ... j.


This is the jist of the email the seller sent me. FWIW

[Bob Cleek]

http://www.lunenburgfoundry.com/Mari...y/foundry.html

Lunenburg Industrial Foundry and Engineering Co. ("LIFE") is very much alive and well. The foundry is only part of a broad spectrum of marine engineering work offered by the firm. They build ships and whatever ships need. They just don't still produce certain model lines of their stoves, winches, Herreshoff anchors and other small craft marine fittings for "off the shelf" sales because there wasn't enough demand for those products anymore.

ABI is still very much in business as well.

http://www.sailboatstuff.com/co_abi.html

[BETTY-B]

ABI is gone. Site is down, phones are off. There's still some stuff on distributors shelves. But that's about it...

DAN

[jstraker]

Hi, all. I do not want to draw any conclusions about any of the information posted here (i.e. I am certainly not claiming that anyone is making stuff up), but thought it worthwhile to note that I have been in contact with the Lunenburg Foundry (now LIFE) about this windlass, and learned this:
1) they do not make windlasses for small boats/yachts anymore
2) they did make bronze windlasses for small boats in the early 90s
3) they have never made a windlass in the ABI style pictured in this ad.

Cheers,

Justin

[pcford]

Originally Posted by Pacific Woody

Drool......but the mooring cover comes first. This week I was quoted over $5G for a sunbrella cover. DAMN! Time to dust off the home economics skills from grade 7 and sew my own.

The materials for a canvas job are approximately half of that total.