Couple items for contemplation
Placing a battery in the bow to save on cabling is placing about 60-75 pounds of lead where you don't need it, in the bow area.....It's bad enough having a 50+ pound windlass, 35lb anchor (?) and the rode and chain all up there. Another 50-75 pounds pounds of lead is gonna trim out your boat fairly bow heavy, especially with a full water tank.
Then you have to secure the battery VERY well as the bow takes a beating in any seaway and I'd hate to see a battery flying around in the forepeak. Also, if you sleep up there in the forepeak, I'm not sure I'd want to be breathing battery off gassing fumes when its charging. So adequate ventilation is a must, but still, I don't think I'd want to breath the gas. Also, an acid proof box with a lid is a must as there's nothing like battery acid to eat through anything it touches. Then you'll need ventilation as battrey gasses are explosive in high concentration.
Having gone the cable route, it was not too bad I don't recall the wire size, but it was not all that big.....maybe 1/0 or 2/0 at most, but keepin mind the wiring sixe is calculated both to and from the item. So what would be a 25' run to the bow is actually a 50 foot run (you calculate both Pos and Neg lengths). I ran them from the battery banks under the aft port settee, up to a 100 amp breaker on the nav station area, then back down underneath the dining sette secured to the vertical seat support, through the main bulkhead with chafe guards, under the sink area secured to the inside of the vertical facia, then through the head closet, then up over the top of the water tank run through clear hose to prevent any possibility of chafe and short circuiting, then finally up into chain locker and control box. The cables are well hidden and unless pointed out, you'd never know they are there. I guesstimate it took about a good day or so to cut, crimp and secure the cables up to the bow area (I have a '72 E-35 MKII as well).
If thinking the battery in the bow route, which I discourage, then you'll need to think about running alternator charging wires to the battery if mounted in the bow as an AC charger will do you no good at sea. If the engine's charging circuit is not hooked into the windlass battery, it will drain the life out of it in short order when doing a few pull ups and drops to get good holding ground. So, to be safe, you'll need AC charging wires run forward to charge at the dock, engine alternator wires run up forward as well and circuitry to keep it all straight, otherwise a BBQ will be in order and that smell of burning wires will be all to familiar.
If it was my boat (and I did it this way on mine), I'd wire up the windlass via the house banks and run the cables so as to have redundancy when running the windlass. AT least then I have two batteries and the engine replacing the amperage draw with the windlass running and they do draw a bit of amperage when loaded down. My Lofrans Progress 1 1,000 watt can pull up to 75 amps if really loaded. Not to mention it's always good practice to have the engine running when pulling the anchor to keep the charge voltage up on the batteries. Otherwise, the undervoltage conditions present with no repacement charge will shorten the windlass motor's life span in short order as the battery too. Not to mention, the motor should be on to control the boat anyway.
As for the remote, I installed it at the helm station near the engine panel so I can be at the helm and engine controls while running the windlass, but I did install an "Up" foot switch on the fore deck becuase if the remote gets baked or gets dropped over board, at least you can pull the anchor up with the low voltage foot switch on the foredeck with out resorting to a manual winch handle. Plus, it's good practie to have a crew mwmbwr on the fore deck to direct the operation and bring in the last few meters of the rode so as not to scratch the hull or bring the anchor in upside down or sideways.
So, there's my $0.02 worth
John M.
