Alright, maybe I'm crazy - been accused of it before - but I was looking at someone's pix (I want to say this is Sumner's fault, but not sure) and they had a very nice step coming into the cabin. That would be fabulous on my boat, but the keel winch handle is right where that step would be. Now, I am aware that the Venture version of my M25 had a different design that allowed for the step, but I am not going to let a little thing like original design on my 30+ year old boat stop me!
So my thought was to possibly add a SS plate or bar where the winch is now (inside of where the SS plate is in the cockpit), and slide the winch 12"-18" (haven't measured anything yet) to the right (port side), set up a block where the winch used to be (over the keel cable hole) to redirect the keel cable to the winch. I did consider the idea of making my SS plate/bar into a frame (rectangle dropping down left and right of the cockpit), allowing my to remove or change/shorten/modify the bulkhead that provides support for the cockpit sole and supports the weight of the keel when raised.
So, the first question is Has anyone done this? Why recreate the wheel after all? Second, if not, what am I missing?
While I'm playing with thoughts (go big or go home, right?), has anyone replaced the keel cable with dyneema? Pros? Cons? And while here, anyone ever consider purchase (2:1)? No, I haven't gone under the boat to check out the keel groove to see if there is enough space for a block in there.
Technically, I need to decide if this is advisable and if I really want this (yeah, haven't completely sold myself on the idea yet) because it affects the electric rewiring I am doing on the boat (don't plan on putting the panel on the back bulkhead), and I don't really want to do it twice!
So, thoughts? Comments? Ideas for improvement? Thanks in advance!
-Peter
So my thought was to possibly add a SS plate or bar where the winch is now (inside of where the SS plate is in the cockpit), and slide the winch 12"-18" (haven't measured anything yet) to the right (port side), set up a block where the winch used to be (over the keel cable hole) to redirect the keel cable to the winch. I did consider the idea of making my SS plate/bar into a frame (rectangle dropping down left and right of the cockpit), allowing my to remove or change/shorten/modify the bulkhead that provides support for the cockpit sole and supports the weight of the keel when raised.
So, the first question is Has anyone done this? Why recreate the wheel after all? Second, if not, what am I missing?
While I'm playing with thoughts (go big or go home, right?), has anyone replaced the keel cable with dyneema? Pros? Cons? And while here, anyone ever consider purchase (2:1)? No, I haven't gone under the boat to check out the keel groove to see if there is enough space for a block in there.
Technically, I need to decide if this is advisable and if I really want this (yeah, haven't completely sold myself on the idea yet) because it affects the electric rewiring I am doing on the boat (don't plan on putting the panel on the back bulkhead), and I don't really want to do it twice!
So, thoughts? Comments? Ideas for improvement? Thanks in advance!
-Peter