Hi All
Last Sunday while cranking on the STB primary winch there was a crack and the winch free wheeled in both directions, upon removal from the boat I found a ratchet gear in four pieces looks like one of the pawls had failed and become lodged in the gear when I was hard to the wind and putting a good bind on the winch the gear failed.
Now the interesting part yesterday I decided to pull the port winch off and re-build it while I was doing the other one. The same pawl in the same gear was also broken but thankfully had not gotten jammed so the gear was OK.
My winches are the older ST44 Lewmar, parts are getting very scarce. I found a Guy in the UK that has some parts and he was able to help me, I have decided after talking to him and seeing how dry my winches are, that I will be servicing all my winches new pawl springs grease oil etc.
If you have not done so in some time it may be a good idea to take the top off your winches and at least inspect them if not service them. New winches are very expensive while parts are not cheap a service kit and a little time could save big time.
Ed
S/V Moonlight Mile.
Not to mention that the winch maintenance is a great winter project. We owned a P-323 whose Lewmar 42 primaries were dry as the Gobi desert when we bought the boat. No damage yet though, so I was able to dissassemble, grease and oil them, install new pawl springs, and they sounded and worked like new when done. Was cool to see how a 2-speed worked.
-Damon
"Looking for a nice 365"