Genoa winch dismounting

[Lucky Strike]

We would like to update our genoa winch size a little. Unfortunately, dismounting the old ones and installing new ones is not "plug and play". The existing winches are mounted on some kind of pedestal on the cabin roof. Most probably because the roof is curved. As could be feared, most of the bolts cannot be unscrewed because the nuts slip beneath. I am uncertain of how the nuts are fastened and how deep they are. Are they recessed into the inside roof under the innerliner? Or are they under that little pedestal? It seems the pedestal cannot be removed. Maybe an "inspection hatch" has to be cut out in the inner roof to get access to the nuts? New winches will not fit to the old nut positions, so this has to be solved. Anyone of you Privilege owners have knowledge about this?

[Jeannius]

This may not be of help due to different model. On the 435 there is a backing plate between the outer and inner skin and the nuts are there. These are accessed, with difficulty, by removing the port side cockpit speaker. Good luck.

[Lucky Strike]

Hi, the 435 is bigger and will have different bulkheads. I have measured, and the winches are mounted within the saloon area. I guess that there are not many Privilege 37 owners that have changed winches, so facts will be difficult to obtain. Thus an inside hatch solution seems to be necessary. A speaker cover might be possible to use.

[Lucky Strike]

I took a decision and, after cross-cutting the innerliner, drilled a 3 inch hole in the ceiling beneath the winch. The innerliner in that area was glued to a thin glass fiber covered board.
Taking that down does not seem to be the best solution.

The structural roof itself was one and a half inch further up. 3 nuts for the winch bolts were found. They will be accessible with a spanner. There are totally 5 bolts. The 2 others I suspect are glassed into the adjacent bulkhead, and will be possible to unscrew without the nut slipping.

[P435]

Could you possibly also post a picture from beneath?

Worst case scenario is to use a drill to "open" the screws from top.

Or can you use a grip tool? (grip plier?)

[Sailing Cyclops]

The machine screws that go through the winch probably continue right through the pedestal, rather than being secured to it with nuts. Even if the winch is connected directly to the pedestal, and the pedestal to the boat, then you'd still need to remove the pedestal to gain access to the nuts holding the winch to the pedestal. I'd remove the speakers in the cockpit and in the saloon, and see which of those provides the best access under the winch.

I've got a 1991 P39, which is an entirely different configuration, but I found a video of a 2000 P37 and have attached some screenshots to show where I'm talking about. If the winch is located forward of the bulkhead (hard to tell from the video I saw), then you'll need to remove the headliner in the saloon. If the backing plate isn't visible, you'll need to cut through the lower skin of the deck (aka the saloon ceiling) to create access.

[Sailing Cyclops]

Ha, looks like you found your solution and posted about it before I posted.

I'll leave my posted pictures up.. for posterity.

[P435]

Thanks for posting the pictures. I can now better understand your situation. It really seems you have to remove the headliners.

Good luck!!!

Please post what you do and the results.

[Lucky Strike]

Hello, really nice with the helpfulness of this forum. Valuable. I think some of you have written while I posted my solution, and then posted. In my 1:51PM post i state that I think I am very close to having this technically solved. I already had some temporary fabric patches mounted over the holes, so I can take no pictures inside. But it is not much more to see than what I have written. We will not return from this summers cruising until middle of September, and the the scourge of Scandinavia, low temperatures, is about to arrive. Still I might find some opportunity to work on this project and the required new holes, glassing and filling if winter does not arrive early.

By the way, the pictures posted really gives a good idea of the situation.

[Lucky Strike]

Project finished. I had to widen the hole to 4 inches. Still difficult to access old nuts and mount new ones after drilling new boltholes, as the access hole was not accurately centered beneath the winch.. There is also a big chance of losing nuts or washers down the innerside of the innerliner board. I put a plastic bag in that area to stop that and be able to recover lost items. The access holes were covered by speaker covers, a solution we can live happily with.

[dmmbruce]

Congratulations, an elegant solution to your problem.

Does the new winch do what you wanted?

Mike

[Lucky Strike]

Actually we are a bit excited to find out about that ourselves . The winches were installed at the very end of the season, we had no opportunity to try them in strong wind. The originals were Lewmar 44's, and I have felt from the beginning that I struggled upwind in true winds from around 25 kts with the genoa of 32m2. Tacking becomes less effective when it takes too much time to winch the genoa in. Harken 48's are the new ones. Maybe not a really huge addition of power, but hopefully enough. There is also a limit to how big and heavy winches I want. For comfort, electrical winches are of course the best choice, but there is no room for an electrical conversion kit on the P37's. And I am happy to excercise a bit for a few more years.

[P435]

Dismounting - I recently needed to maintain my genoa furler winch. Dismouting it is not difficult but it screws are going through the roof. This means when re-mounting them sikaflex is needed to seal all 4 holes for the screw. I consider now to get a mounting plate made of marine grade stainless steel and mount this once with screws through the roof and mount the winch with machine screws on to this new mounting plate.

Winch needs too much power - I recommend to open, clean and grease all parts. This has a tremendous effect.

[Lucky Strike]

What manufacturer winch is this? I am not familiar with many types, but have believed that winches do net need to be dismounted for maintenace. But it does of course sound logical with removal if there is a problem with the base.

It would be interesting to know the sizes of the genoa winces installed on the boats of the members. Just for reference.

And yes, I have greased our winches more than once, so I believe they do not suffer from too much internal friction.

[P435]

Harken winches:

- 16 - no mounting plate
- 40 - no mounting plate
- 44 - no mounting plate
- 48 - seems to have a mounting plate; will find out next spring