Winches and cleats...
I’d been meaning to pull apart and inspect the three winches on the boat ever since I purchased her, and today was the day. After surrounding the work area with a towel (to prevent parts from falling into the watery deep) and carefully removing the round spring clip from the top spindle, I was able to pull off the drum housing.
The roller bearings all looked to be in good shape and well greased. Some of the pawls were fine and just needed to be re-oiled. Some were crusted with gunk and either frozen in position or very hard to move. One of the pawl springs had disintegrated which meant another trip to McClendon’s to find a replacement. Here is the “before” picture of the starboard winch once I had removed the pawls and springs from the drum housing:
After giving everything a good scrub with WD-40:
And now everything is dried, reassembled and re-oiled:
Happiness is a smoothly turning winch with crisply clicking pawls!
The roller bearings all looked to be in good shape and well greased. Some of the pawls were fine and just needed to be re-oiled. Some were crusted with gunk and either frozen in position or very hard to move. One of the pawl springs had disintegrated which meant another trip to McClendon’s to find a replacement. Here is the “before” picture of the starboard winch once I had removed the pawls and springs from the drum housing:
After giving everything a good scrub with WD-40:
And now everything is dried, reassembled and re-oiled:
Happiness is a smoothly turning winch with crisply clicking pawls!
CAM CLEATS
Next it was time to drill some holes in the boat; specifically, to install the cam cleats on the stern which will hold the braces in position once the square sail is raised. First I hoisted the yard-spar to its working height so I knew exactly where the braces would be positioned:
Now I could see exactly what angle the braces would be leaving the blocks attached to the aft cleats. I had already fabricated a backing plate for the cam cleat and I used this as a template to drill the holes:
Next, I attached the backing plate on the underside of the cockpit coaming with some sikaflex (marine sealant) and then continued perfecting my technique for installing and tightening machine screws and nuts single-handedly. Here’s the final result:
The port side cam cleat will have to wait for another day. I also rebedded and re-tightened the port side bow cleat. I had noticed it was a bit loose and also noticed a small leak in the V berth; hopefully both problems are now solved!
Next it was time to drill some holes in the boat; specifically, to install the cam cleats on the stern which will hold the braces in position once the square sail is raised. First I hoisted the yard-spar to its working height so I knew exactly where the braces would be positioned:
Now I could see exactly what angle the braces would be leaving the blocks attached to the aft cleats. I had already fabricated a backing plate for the cam cleat and I used this as a template to drill the holes:
Next, I attached the backing plate on the underside of the cockpit coaming with some sikaflex (marine sealant) and then continued perfecting my technique for installing and tightening machine screws and nuts single-handedly. Here’s the final result:
The port side cam cleat will have to wait for another day. I also rebedded and re-tightened the port side bow cleat. I had noticed it was a bit loose and also noticed a small leak in the V berth; hopefully both problems are now solved!