So it seemed that no matter what I did, my port Lewmar 16ST winch was a bit "grabby". Wouldn't spin unless you put some force to it. Sometimes it was fine, others not so much. 2 years ago I took advantage of the now defunct, maybe it will come back., BOGO sale between Lewmar and West Marine on winches. So I popped for new ones. $700 for a PAIR! Last week I finally got around to swapping them out. One of the issues is that on the starboard side, the bulkhead tabbing covers two of the five nuts and the bulkhead itself covers half of another with 2 being easily accessed. And by easily I mean laying on your back in a small space with an extension on a socket. Anyone who has swapped out a kitchen faucet knows that fun.
@Jackdaw assisted me with his usual very reasonable fee, beer. The first 2 exposed ones came out relatively easily, the half covered one required a small vise gripes, and the covered 2, well, those got drilled out. The port side we swapped the whole thing out, old to new, in about 20 minutes. The other side had to wait for some new bolts & nuts. We rotated the starboard winch about a half inch, drilled new holes and I got to have the fun of being in a 2 square foot hole again tightening while Clay held a screw driver on the screws so they wouldn't spin, enjoying more of my beer..... Well it is my boat.
Went out yesterday evening in 9-13 and those winches worked like butter. Oh my, they are super sweet. I sold the old ones to a friend at the club, fully aware of my said issues, he is very handy and will install them on his Hunter 23.5 making his admiral and her daughter very happy trimming the head sail. He is going to give them a full twice over before he gets them installed of course. He paid me $350 for the pair so, I ended up paying $350 for a pair plus tax and shipping, not bad.
Completely glassed over.
2 visible and one partly.
I think I heard angels singing when I pulled down the headliner....
Drill for the win.
Installed and ready to go. Hole patterns were not different either.
So now this is off the punch list. No racing means more time for me to fun sail and get all those things off the project list.
@Jackdaw assisted me with his usual very reasonable fee, beer. The first 2 exposed ones came out relatively easily, the half covered one required a small vise gripes, and the covered 2, well, those got drilled out. The port side we swapped the whole thing out, old to new, in about 20 minutes. The other side had to wait for some new bolts & nuts. We rotated the starboard winch about a half inch, drilled new holes and I got to have the fun of being in a 2 square foot hole again tightening while Clay held a screw driver on the screws so they wouldn't spin, enjoying more of my beer..... Well it is my boat.
Went out yesterday evening in 9-13 and those winches worked like butter. Oh my, they are super sweet. I sold the old ones to a friend at the club, fully aware of my said issues, he is very handy and will install them on his Hunter 23.5 making his admiral and her daughter very happy trimming the head sail. He is going to give them a full twice over before he gets them installed of course. He paid me $350 for the pair so, I ended up paying $350 for a pair plus tax and shipping, not bad.
So now this is off the punch list. No racing means more time for me to fun sail and get all those things off the project list.
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