A friend lost the ability to raise and lower the anchor on his 44' Sailboat, due to a failed remote control. It had been stored in the anchor chain locker in the bow, and had been very wet, for a long time. The controller has been out of production for many years, and he was worried about how to replace it. I cracked it open and found the membrane switch pad to be destroyed by oxidation. With a little reverse engineering, I was able to figure out the interface with the membrane pad, installed a mechanical "on" pushbutton, and a "center off" spring loaded switch for anchor up and down. While not as pretty as the original, it got his anchor running without having to replace his Windlass control system. Here are a few pics...
