Voltage transformers/regultors 32v-> 12v, help educate me

[rustybucket]

Ok, so after the first couple trips in the boat we have a laundry list of 'to-dos'. A couple of these issues involve 12v products running on a 32v system.

First of all is the windlass. The PO installed a 12v lewmar windlass and installed two batteries in the fwd bilge and a charger in the bow stateroom closet. Well, the batteries are pretty much toast and need replacing.

Personally, rather than replacing those batteries, and maintaining them I'd prefer to either switch to a 32v windlass OR install a voltage regulator that would allow the 12v windlass to run off the boat's 32v.

After looking at the price of a 32v windlass I'm really leaning more toward voltage regulator...

Anyone have any ideas what type of voltage regulator would work for this situation?


Second, we want to install electric downriggers (or at least plugs for them) in the cockpit somewhere. Here we run into the same situation as above, all the downriggers are 12v. So do I have to install more batteries and charger or can I just add a voltage regulator to reduce the voltage?

As a general disclaimer, I'm very ignorant when it comes to the voltage regulators/transformers, just trying to educate myself a little on the subject and hopefully make wise decisions.