FAQ

Lofrans' Frequently Asked Questions

The two main reasons are: Safety and Utility. The anchor windlass on your boat allows you to handle different anchoring situations, even the most critical, always completed safely.

Every anchoring operation will be extremely simple, fast and firmly under your control.

No more fear of failing to recover your anchor and every anchoring will be a pleasure.

No more heavy and complicated operations!

Installing an anchor windlass means making an investment on the safety of your crew and your boat!

The strong point of every successful manufacturer is the quality and the reliability of its products. Does the product work properly as the advertisement said? Is the product worth the price paid for it? Is the product still reliable after years?

If the product is a Lofrans the answer to these question is Yes! We did not say this by our self, but it is said by the thousands and thousands of our customer all over the world who chose our products making Lofrans’ today the most popular manufacturer of anchor windlass.

This important result testifies more than any other topic the quality of our product and the good reputation of the Lofrans' brand.

The reasons to choose a manual anchor windlass are mainly two. The simplest installation, as it is not necessary to carry out the electrical work, and the price.

The power used by the electric anchor windlass is not a real problem; modern boats have proper batteries and the electric anchor windlass runs for few minutes only. On the contrary, safety, practicability and fast operations are the advantages of the electric anchor windlass. Today 95 out 100 anchor windlasses are electrics.

There are two different types of anchor windlass, vertical anchor windlass and horizontal anchor windlass. The best way to decide is to weigh up which option meets your requirements.

Vertical Windlass

The main advantage of this type of anchor windlass is that the profile deck is very compact as the electric motor and the gearbox are under the deck. They are lighter than the horizontal anchor windlasses and their price is more competitive. Their attactive design make them suitable for every kind of boat, sailboat or motorboat. With most of the mechanical components are under deck, the maintenance operations are less simple than the horizontal anchor windlasses.

Horizontal Windlass

These are the classic anchor windlass design, practical and useful. Normally they are entirely installed above deck. All mechanical components and the gearbox are protected by the body and the electric motor by the cover. This makes maintenance operations easy. The installation is very simple and it take less time than the verticals. They can be mounted into the anchor locker to further reduce the above deck profile.

The choice of model and power should be done considering length and displacement of the boat. On the following pages there are helpful selection charts to choose the proper model for your boat. This cover a lot of important of important parameters, which will address some of your questions to the different choices. That is because, it is not possible generalise with formulas, calculations or different charts, as there are plenty of situations due to the type of boat, the skill of the person who is making the anchoring operation, the wind force and sea condition.

These selection charts are the result of thirty years of experience and it must be considered as an important reference. Most of the comparisons between windlasses is done following the data declared from the manufacturer against which windlass is recommended for a specific length of boats.

That could be a mistake!
From our point of view, to get a correct evalutation, the windlasses should be compared for sizes, weight, mechanical strength, power and other visible features, so please do not compare windlasses having different features just because both the manufacturers recommend them for the specific length of boat.

Most of our anchor windlasses are available in two different electric motors, a powerful electric motor which is faster and has more pulling power, and a smaller one with a lower current draw so it is possible to use smaller cross section electric cables.

We’re able to provide anchor windlasses with three motorization types: Direct current, Alternate current and Hydraulic.

DC motorization is the most popular for reliability. Their maintenance is very limited and this kind of motorization is used for boats up to 27m.

AC motorization is suitable for boats that their length is between 27m and 36m and have a generator on board. This type of motorization offers a good torque, their installation is simple and require limited maintenance.

Hydraulic motorization gives the advantage of a constant torgue while the load changes. They are very popular on boats over 36m and they need a specific installation.

The circuit breaker protects the electric motor and the wiring of the windlass from high current draw and/or a short circuit. It’s installed on the power line and it can be tripped automatically.

A circuit breaker for anchor windlasses is essential for safety reasons. Please choose wisely the proper circuit breaker according to the manufacturer properties in order to avoid any unpleasant installation mistakes.

A windlass is designed to lift a specific amount of load and not the load of the whole boat. For this reason we strongly recommend to use a chain stopper in order to take some of the tension of the load that is applied on the windlass and avoid damaging the windlass components due to overload..

Most of Lofrans’ windlasses come with the manual override function in order for the chain to be recovered manually in case of electric system failure. The manual override is inserted inside the gearbox and it is made by spring load ratchet which has the secondary function to make a sort of mechanical fuse in order to prevent the chain from jamming in the chain locker and thus damaging the deck.

In the Lofrans’ anchor windlasses the main shaft and the gipsy are connected by a couple of conical discs called clutch. They are normally engaged by screwing the top star shaped nut. To engage or disengage the clutch you have to insert the supllied handle in this nut. By disengaging the clutch the gispy stays free and the weight of the anchor pulls down the released chain.

Some horizontal anchor windlasses come optionally with a device called "Automatic Free Fall" which allows the clutch to be disengaged automatically by simply pushing on the remote the button Down.

Most Lofrans’ anchor windlasses are able to manage the rope and the chain by a special spring load tension arm called finger which pushes the rope deeply inside the gipsy’s teeth.

Oil type range recommended for all Lofrans’ models is, SAE 90 – SAE 140.

Molinetes

Volume (Lt)

X1 500W / 800W, SX1 500W / 800W, Marlin, Scorpion

0,15

X1 1000W, Marlin , Scorpion

0,30

X2 / 700W , Airon, Progress 1

0,15

X2 1000W / 1500W, SX2 1000W / 1500W, Project 1000, Airon, Progress 1

0,30

X3 1500W, SX3 1500W, Project 1500, Progress 2

0,30

X3 1700W, SX3 1700W, Leopard

0,30

X3.5, SX3.5

1,00

X4, SX4, Project 2000

1,40

X5, SX5

1,40

Capstan T500 / T700

0,20

Capstan T1000 / T1500 / T1700

0,20

Capstan T2000 / T2500

1,00

Ercole Vertical

2,80

Lion, Atlas

0,15

Dorado

0,10

Kobra

0,50

Cayman 88

0,50

Tigres

0,50

Falkon

1,00

Titan

2,00

Ercole – Horizontal

4,00

Super Ercole

6,00

  

Wattage

Voltage

OUTPUT
Terminals n°

SHAFT ø
Diameter (mm)

Adjustment mmY

Holes/Bolts mm X

Lofrans Part Number

Model

Flange shape

400-500

12

2

11

40

60,5

633509

Dorado, Scorpion , Marlin, first generation X1, X0, Panther

CIRCULAR FLANGE

500

12

2T

11

60

75

633520

X1

CIRCULAR FLANGE

700

12

2

11

70

60,5

634390

Marlin, X1, Dorado, T700

CIRCULAR FLANGE

700

12

2

14

64

91

633510

T700, X2, AIRON, KOBRA

CIRCULAR FLANGE

700

24

2

14

64

91

633511

T700, X2

CIRCULAR FLANGE

700

12

2

17

85

127

634365

CAYMAN

SMALL TRIANGLE

1000

12

2

14

64

91

633512

Progress 1,Panther, first generation X2, KOBRA ,T1000, Airon

CIRCULAR FLANGE

1000

24

3

14

70

85

633524

X2, T1000

B14 SIZE 70

1000

24

2

14

64

91

633513

Airon, first generation X2, KOBRA ,T1000, Panther

CIRCULAR FLANGE

1000

12

3 T

special

75

93

634373

first generation X2

SQUARE FLANGE

1000

12

3 W

17

85

127

634367

CAYMAN

SMALL TRIANGLE

1000

24

3 W

17

85

127

634368

CAYMAN

SMALL TRIANGLE

1000

24

3 T

special

75

93

634374

first generation X2

SQUARE FLANGE

1000

24

3 T

special

75

93

634378

PROJECT 1000

SQUARE FLANGE

1000

12

3 T

special

75

93

634387

first generation X2,
PROJECT 1000

SQUARE FLANGE

1200- 1500

12

3

17

85

142

634369

TIGRES, Progress 2, Leopard

TRIANGLE FLANGE

1200-1500

24

3

17

85

142

634370

TIGRES, Progress 2,Leopard, T1500

TRIANGLE FLANGE

1500-1700

12

3

17

85

142

634371

Albatros,FALKON, Progress 2,  first generation X3

TRIANGLE FLANGE

1500- 1700

24

3

17

85

142

634372

Albatros, FALKON, Progress 2,  first generation X3

TRIANGLE FLANGE

1500

24

3 T

14

70

85

633526

X2, X3

B14 SIZE 70

1500

12

3 T

14

70

85

633525

X2, X3

B14 SIZE 70

1500

24

3 T

14

85

142

602558

Tigres

TRIANGLE FLANGE

1700

24

3 T

19

80

100

633508

X3

B14 SIZE 80

1700

12

3 T

19

80

100

633507

X3, T1700, SX3.5

B14 SIZE 80

2000- 2300

24

3

28

60

174

633502

TITAN, X4, Albatros de luxe

SQUARE FLANGE

2000

24

4 T

19

80

100

633518

SX3.5

B14 SIZE 80

2500- 2700

24

3

28

60

174

633503

X4

SQUARE FLANGE

3000

24

4 T

28

60

174

633504

SX5

SQUARE FLANGE

3500

24

4

30

130

174

633505

ERCOLE VERTICAL
ERCOLE & SUPER ERCOLE HORIZONTAL

SQUARE FLANGE

800

12

2

11

60

75

636050

X1, Χ2, Dorado, LION

CIRCULAR FLANGE

600

12

2

special

40

95

633519

ATLAS

OVAL FLANGE

700

12

2

11

40

95

633521

X1, X2, Dorado,
LION 1000

OVAL FLANGE

1000

12

3 T

14

70

84

633523

X2, Airon, Progress 1, Kobra , X1

B14 SIZE 70

1500

12

3

14

85

142

602557

Tigres

TRIANGLE FLANG

Please check the number of terminals of your existing motor compared to the terminals of the above corresponding motor. If the number of terminals is different please note that you will need to change control box.

  

RETIRED MODEL

REPLACEMENT MODEL

PROGRESS I

X2

PROGRESS II

X3

DYNAMIC

X0

LK2

X2

ALBATROS DE LUXE

SX3.5

AIRON

X2

AIRON DE LUXE

SX2

LEOPARD

X3

LEOPARD DE LUXE

SX3

PANTHER

No direct replacement

CLIPPER

X2

SCORPION

X1

ROYAL MAJOR

No direct replacement

MARLIN

X1

JAGUARO, JAGUARO SX

SX4

ALBATROS

X4

Project 1000

X2

Project 1500

X3

Project 2000

X4

The replacement models concern only the deck template compatibility not the compatibility of the spare parts. For more information please advise the corresponding manuals.

 

For any further questions, please click here.