Cabin top winch access for maintainence issue

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Post by Guest »

My yard says the Harken cabin top winches must be unbolted from the deck for complete servicing of the internal gearing, pawls and pawl springs, which requires the headliner to be lowered and then re-installed, taking 3-4 hours, not including servicing the winches themselves. They propose installing stainless backing plates for $595 to simplify the access problem. I never heard of anything like this before. Doesn't seem reasonable. Anyone else run into this?
Thanks,
Rich

[Posted by: rich nicholls
]
j_h_udell
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 8:00 pm

Post by j_h_udell »

That particular winch does require coming off for total access. Bummer but no way around it. You can do a wipe down cleaning and lube the drums w/o total removal, but not a full teardown. What they are suggesting is actually a great idea, and later today we will receive our fist set of SS plates for that very purpose. The idea is they get bonded under deck and are pretapped for the bolt pattern. The first time is a big hit, but thereafter you can unbolt the winches without having to remove the liner - it becomes a one man job. So the time (and $$) savings are down the road after the first hit, but we'll suggest it to most of our 109 owners. As for your yard's pricing.... I havent'd done the math but depending on their labor rate it may not be far off.
Guest

Post by Guest »

I've accessed the same area under the headliner on the port side twice now in order to service the cams on the Spinlock halyard clutches. It's not that difficult, especially the second time, when you know which pieces of trim to remove in order to get the headliner board down. Second time around I think it took less than half an hour. I have yet to try accessing the starboard side so I don't know for sure what is involved there. I plan on servicing the winches later this spring so I will update this post when I have the experience of trying it myself. I may even add a do-it-yourself guide to accessing these areas in the "owner's tips" section of our Fleet 3 web site.

[Posted by: Tom Brott
]
Guest

Post by Guest »

Jonathan:
Thanks for your message. It does sound like a good idea, but the question is: who should have had it. If you buy one of the most expensive 35 ft boats on the planet, is it reasonable for them not to have anticipated this problem (the Harken sheet that came with the boat say that this area is to be serviced at the beginning of the season and half way through)so that we have to pay an amount like this just to do what seems to be required service on these winches?
On the other hand Tom's message may be encouraging, depending on what he finds later.
Thanks,
Rich

[Posted by: rich and anne nicholls
]
Guest

Post by Guest »

The yard found a leak over the nav station and traced it to the mast. They retaped it and said ok. No experience yet.

[Posted by: Rich and Anne Nicholls rhn1%40optonline.net
]
Guest

Post by Guest »

Removing the headliner beneath the starboard side cabin top winch turned out to be more difficult. Once I removed three trim pieces and unfastened the two screws holding the headliner in place, I found that the headliner board was entrapped by the end of the hand rail that protrudes into the head (and serves as a race for the bowsprit retract line). I had hoped that I could maneuver the board past the aft-facing portlight, but it wasn't possible, due to the 2-inch pipe sticking out on the forward side. Not wanting to get into the job of removing the grab rail, I resorted to sliding the headliner board as far outboard as possible. This gave me about 3 inches of access area- just barely enough to get a 7/16" wrench on the nuts on the back side of the winch. The job is manageable with this much access, but it's not easy. I don't recommend trying it without an assistant to man the phillips screw driver up top. Since I didn't have an assistant, I did it by reaching through the portlight to the top while contorting my wrist around the headliner on the inside. Putting it back together was even more fun. Tearing down and rebuilding the winch wasn't too difficult, but there are quite a few parts in that winch. This is not my idea of a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Now that I know what's involved, I'm pretty sure I could do the job in less than two hours the next time. I'm also going to check with the commissioning yard to see what is involved with removing the grab rail. If it requires rebedding in the deck as I suspect, then I'll stick with the partial access method. I hope my experience can help others with this task. I'm willing to post some pictures for fellow do-it-yourselfers if there is a demand. Of course, there's the usual disclaimers about differences among hull numbers, although I did hear from an owner of one of the earliest hull numbers that he has the same access problem on his boat.

[Posted by: Tom Brott
]
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Vento Solare
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Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 8:00 pm
Location: Newport, RI

Re: Cabin top winch access for maintainence issue

Post by Vento Solare »

Harken has plates that are bolted directly to the cabin top using the hole pattern from the winch. The plates are tapped so that the winch may be bolted to the plates. This allows the winches to be serviced in the future without removing the headliner. The Harken 40 Winch Mounting Plate part number is HB947738 and available directly from Harken or APS.

Plate next to winch before removal.
Image

Plate mounted on cabin top - note plastic shield screwed to plate with allen head screws that are used for attaching winch
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Final installation
Image
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