Anchor Winch and Sails

There was a spurt of activity in the winch replacement project.

On Monday morning Jerry told me by telephone that he had discussed the issue with Maxwell and could recommend either of two of the company's offerings.  I responded that I had been doing research of my own and had concluded that the Maxwell RC10-10 was the most appropriate for my boat.  Jerry replied that his preference was also the RC10-10, which was an excellent start to the project.  We agreed to meet at the boat at 11 AM to discuss the matter.

Removing old mounting block

Block removed, teak at  left cut out

Chain hole drilled

Winch mounting block in position

Jerry came well armed with a Maxwell catalogue that contained much more information than what is available on the internet.  We discussed the variations available for the RC10 and agreed on the actual part number to be ordered.  It was no accident that Jerry had come so well armed with information because in the past he had been Maxwell's maintenance person for the Perth area.  I received his invoice for the new winch on Tuesday and made payment on Wednesday.  The winch will be shipped from Queensland and delivered to a business in the area.

On Monday I spoke also to Bruce to discuss the fitting of the new winch.  Using a paper template for the RC10-10 Jerry and I had seen that the existing wood mounting base would require an extra 30 mm on the port side we all agreed that the simplest thing was to replace the entire base.

Within an hour Zelko the wood specialist was on board and we agreed on the shape and dimensions of the new mounting block. I went along with his suggestion that jarrah would be used because it is much stronger than teak. Zelko finished his visit by removing the old mounting block with remarkable ease.  He also skillfully removed a section of the teak decking to accommodate the larger mounting block.  The old block was made of meranti, a good rain forest wood that is nevertheless not as strong and durable as jarrah.  The old block was of two pieces glued down the middle and the wood was in bad shape.

Early the next day Zelko arrived with the new block made of a well seasoned piece of jarrah (more than 20 years old) and a hefty 40-45 mm thick.  Bruce soon joined us and we agreed on how to proceed.  Zelco fit the piece, which required him to first scallop out the bottom side of the block to accommodate the camber of the deck.  He then drilled the hole for the passage of the chain rode to the chain locker below.  The larger hole for the body of the winch would wait until the actual winch was on hand.  Once the required holes (including 4 bolt holes) had been drilled the block would be well coated with Everdure then glued to the deck.  At that point Jerry would arrive to oversee the actual installation.

Below the deck were two thick metal backing plates that had been expertly shaped to match the camber of the deck.  Bruce will arrange for a new backing plate to be made because the pattern of the four holes for bolting down the new winch is different from that of the old winch.

Although we have the capability of wiring in the new winch (we took plenty of photos) we will attempt to have our effort checked out by Greg the marine electrician if he is back from a trip to New Zealand.

On the sails front I completed the job of removing the accumulation of deck paint under the car tracks which prevented free movement of the cars.  (They would move only with the use of a hammer.)  I tried sanding by hand but the awkward job of sanding the rock hard anti skid deck paint by hand would have taken weeks and probably done damage to my thumbs.  I modified my angle grinder to take a circular sanding disk and completed the job in about two hours.  Sure, the appearance of the deck paint has been marred by the removal of paint a times exposing the fiberglass but it had to be done because I needed to remove not only the recent deck paint but also the paint from earlier times.  I plan to touch up the areas under the tracks with a thin layer of left over deck paint  without the anti skid material.

The mainsail is on board and ready to go up now that I managed to replace the "gate" clip that prevents the sail slides from dropping to the exit openings by cleverly (if I say so myself) modifying an off-the-shelf clip that was not quite long enough.

The head sail story is somewhat interesting.  I was thinking ahead about clearing the enormous amount of junk stored in my garage and shed. There were two head sails that had been damaged on the circumnavigation and I had to either use them again or dispose of them.

My best head sail had been made by Steve Hartley of Taskers in 2008.  Due to over canvasing the boat through several gales while crossing the Bight I blew out both of my head sails.  While I was having those sails repaired in Adelaide I telephone Steve and that night he had the cutter at work for the manufacture of a very strong "laminated" sail.  The front of the sail was so thin that I could see stars through it, and the back of the sail was of standard material, probably Dacron.  The idea was to save weight.  In light airs the entire sail would be rolled out but as the wind got stronger the sail would be rolled in, leaving the stronger material to take the load.

The stitching of that sail gave way along two seams while approaching Cape Horn and I was forced to bend one of the sails that had been repaired in Adelaide and managed to reach Argentina while staring at the small slit in the sail and the flimsy looking patches along the tears.  During this time I spent many difficult hours using a palm to force a needle through the steel hard material to prepare the damaged sail for emergency use.  In Argentina Pato Salas did a more professional sewing job, but he did say "You still need a new head sail."  I wanted no more sail problems so I visited North Sails in Buenos Aires and asked for a head sail that could carry me through 45 knot winds.  The result was a heavy (about 9.5 oz) cruising sail that even today looks like new.

Back to the present day, I rolled out the laminated sail on the ground and to me it appeared to be in remarkably good condition.  I then rolled out the heavier of the two head sails that had been repaired in Adelaide and it looked even better.  On that basis I took the sails to Steve Hartley for an assessment.  He pronounced the laminated sail to be in amazingly good shape and he could get it ready for use for only about $500.  The Dacron sail also looked very good but replacement of the UV material along the foot and leech would make its restoration a bit pricier at about $1500.  Because I must either repair the sails or purchase a new one for about $4500 and because I hate discarding things that still have usefulness I gave Steve the OK to repair both sails.

The sails are now ready for pick up and I will probably put up the laminated sail and store the Dacron sail at home along with the heavy cruising sail at home to minimize the weight and clutter on the boat while I am doing local cruising.

Channels for wiring

During the week I also installed some channeling provided by Greg to tidy up the wiring between the main panel and stern.