Chapter 43: Which Winch is Which?

Winches. We have them. We have 9 of them to be exact. Winches are a vital part of a sailboat because sailing involves a lot of lines going here, there, and everywhere. Those lines are often under a lot of tension and have to be adjusted, so winches help us mere mortals move things around when we otherwise could not. To be honest, a winch is an unassuming piece of kit on the boat. It’s a cylinder that just sits there. How complicated could it be? Well…

Let’s start with what we’ve got: We have four winches on the mast: one each for the genoa, mainsail, staysail, and spinnaker halyards. We have 5 winches in the cockpit: two primary winches for the genoa sheets, two secondaries for the staysail sheets, and one for the main sheet. All of Meraviglia’s winches are original equipment, meaning they are 38 years old, manufactured by Barient, which went out of business decades ago.

In order to work, winches need to be cared for. Although they look unassuming, winches are actually fairly complex. There are a LOT of parts in there: cogs, gears, shafts, bearings. Lots of parts. Those parts need to be clean and well-lubricated in order for the winch to work smoothly. Based on the rest of the boat, we figured our winches were overdue for servicing. Since winches are wicked expensive, we can’t afford to replace them. So we decided to remove, disassemble, clean, lubricate, reassemble, and reinstall all nine winches. No problem!

We picked one to test out. We took it apart and found, not surprisingly, that it was dirty and dry-no lubricant. We soaked the parts in carburator cleaner and mineral spirits, cleaned them with a brush, re-lubricated with grease, and reassembled it. All in, it took about 3 hours. Not too bad and we figured that with that experience, the others would be faster. So this week, we did all the rest. THIS. WEEK. Like, The Whole Week.

Disassembly actually went pretty well. Kim videoed the disassembly process because we figured that would help us remember how they went back together, since there are different types of winches on board and each is different inside. At the end, after 4 hours, we had eight boxes/bags of winch parts. VERY fortunately, we were able to take all of them to a workshop and use a professional engine parts cleaning machine, because it would have taken a month with a toothbrush. Unfortunately, one of the bags broke while we were loading the car and tiny bearings went rolling around on the asphalt. Queue panic attack, because parts are no longer made for our winches. It was quite a scene: Kim and I crawling around on the asphalt looking for drum bearings. Happily, we found all the parts that spilled. WHEW! Off we went to the workshop. The cleaning was tough because none of the winches had any grease left-just lots of crusty, dried debris. Fortunately, the workshop also had a sandblaster that we used to remove the debris. (Side note: sandblasting is fun!) Four hours later, all parts were clean.

Reassembly: We had our experience with the test winch and our videos. Piece of cake! NOT! First, it turns out we have various models of the same winch and they aren’t the same inside, so we didn’t have video for everything. Second, many of the parts look very similar, so the video didn’t help us sort that very well. Third, Kim’s video skills are maybe not the greatest. She wound up watching me and not the screen so the video didn’t always capture what we were doing.

Eight hours later, we had all the winches reassembled and installed. Except one. The largest one. Because we were missing a part. GREAT! Visions of a $10,000 winch purchase were flashing through our brains. We tore apart the boat and the car: no luck. Then I realized that the parts cleaner fluid was dark/dirty. Turns out, I had left the part in the washer submerged in the cleaner. FOUND! Hurray! Two hours later, last winch finished!

All told, it was a four-day project. We’re supposed to service winches annually. Hopefully by then, the memory will have faded…

I will say, though, the difference in performance is huge. They turn LIKE BUTTAH!