servicing Lewmar winches
With all due respect Mel, you're wrong. Short of pouring epoxy into your winch, the dumbest thing you can do is nothing. They need lubrication and cleaning just like any other mechanical device. Of course, the conditions that your boat is stored in has a lot to do with how often you need to service the winches. If it's not too dusty and it's not in salt water ever, once every two years is probably fine. If you see salt water, I'd recommend once a year. Dusty conditions can also "kill" a winch if any gets in the gears. The previous owner of my boat lives in Palmdale, and he left the boat to sit outside for two years after he stopped sailing it. (Palmdale = high desert, lots of fine dust blowing around) When I bought the boat, the winches would barely spin. Depending on which Lewmar winches you have, you might have to call Lewmar to get the servicing booklet for your particular model. But they have one big one for all their current models online at http://www.lewmar.com/pdfs/Winch_Service_Manual.pdf (PDF file - requires Acrobat reader). On pages 30 and 31 of the manual are disassembly instructions for their smaller non-self-tailing winches. I think you will find that these diagrams more or less resemble what your winches will look like on the inside, and even if they don't, winches are pretty simple devices, even for the mechanically impaired. On the top left of page 28 are general servicing instructions. Basically you need some winch grease (it has a creamy peanut butter consistency), some light oil lubricant, and an old 1"-or-so paintbrush. Take your winch apart fully, wash all the pieces in dish soap to remove all the grease that's on there, then follow up with acetone or similar cleaner to get rid of any soapy residue. Now take the winch grease, gob some on the parts, and use the brush to spread it out. You want a nice thin, even coat on everything except the pawls, pawl springs, and pawl pockets. Pawls are the little arms that hold the winch from spinning backwards...they make the clicking noise when you spin the drum. You don't want to put winch grease on them because it can make them stick in the open position, which would let your winch drum spin freely in both directions. For the pawls etc, use the light oil. Then put it all back together and make sure everything spins freely.
