Mounting Winches

[CupOTea]

Here's the final product. Lewmar 16 self tailers - which barely fit on the winch pads. Prior to mounting, I filled the holes from the old Southeasts with epoxy/filler and smeared vinylester putty (thanks Mike Goodwin!) up underneath and all over the exposed fiberglas cloth on the underside of the pads to reinforce. Used a drill bit to form pockets in the dried putty base for the 1/4 washers required. 1/4 lock nuts and they're ready to go.

Went for the Lewmar winch grease to re-assemble the parts. $17 a tube but you use very little. Same for the pawl oil. Important to not overdo it with the grease, which attracts dirt and can end up in the pawls - preventing them from releasing properly.

For anyone who's had problems getting the colletts in in the final stage - just lift the main spindle up around 5mm with your index finger and snug them right in there and you can get the feeder arm back on.

BTW - in my winch odyssey I came across the One Touch winch handle. I went to visit inventor Don Steiner up in CT. He licensed his design to Lewmar who made a metal version - but his composite version is lighter and better IMOO. The entire handle arm is a big button. When you're ready to unlock it from the winch and move to another winch - you just grab the arm and go. Here's the website: http://www.onetouchhandle.com/