One afternoon, while cranking up the daggerboard, the winch cable must have been a tad too loose and slipped sideways off the board’s pulley assembly. I immediately noticed that it was harder to turn the winch handle and backed off the tension. Too late: the damage had been done. The cable had ground a notch into the side of the pulley housing and was now sporting some permanent loops and meathooks. The system was still useable, but the broken, sharp wire fibers seemed dangerous. I could very well imagine what they could do to errant fingers. Below on the left is a photo of the looped cable; on the right you can see the notch ground into the pulley housing.
|
|
In my opinion, I had no other choice than to replace the cable. And if I were going to undertake that project, I figured that I might as well emulate the suggested upgrade of other members of the Potter online forum, i.e., use high-strength rope instead of wire.
Most forum members had installed V-12 Vectran Single Braid when they undertook this repair. I stopped by a West Marine store to see if they had some of that rope in stock, but the employees suggested a better alternative: Amsteel Dyneema Single Braid. Both lines were available in the same size as the cable I was replacing (1/8"). Although the Amsteel was more expensive (86¢) than the V-12 (71¢) per foot, it had a higher tensile strength (2,100 instead of 1,900 lbs.). It also comes in three additional colors (red, green, and dark grey) instead of only one (light grey). I decided that, for 15¢ more per foot, the Amsteel was worth it and bought enough for two winch systems: one to use, and one for a spare —just in case.
I had also decided to replace the damaged housing with a Harken double-pulley no. 084 (West Marine stock no. 114306) and a Ronstan keypin locking shackle (West Marine stock no. 110710). The idea behind adding an extra pulley to the winch system was to make it easier to crank the daggerboard up. As for the shackle, it would allow me to detach that double-pulley and crank it up to the ceiling so that the new line was completely out of the way when on the water. Of course, adding an extra pulley also required a longer line. For this reason, I opted for 30 feet of Amsteel to replace the original 28 feet of cable.
Installing these components was relatively easy. I simply had to add a couple of washers to the original end bolt so that the shackle would clear the teak slat on top of the daggerboard. I fed the Amsteel through all the pulleys and then secured the bitter end to the small crossbeam on the front ceiling pulley with a bowline. Although knots can weaken a rope more than a splice, I figured that, with a 2,100 lb. breaking capacity and four pulleys, there is no way that the P-19’s 300-lb. daggerboard could exceed the bowline’s limit —somewhere between 60% to 70%, i.e., 1,260 to 1,470 lbs. in this particular case. Below on the left is a photo of the Amsteel line fed through all the pulleys; to the right a close-up of the double-pulley and shackle.
|
|
Securing the new rope on the winch didn’t pose any major problems either. I didn't even have to crawl back into the dungeon to string the Amsteel through the corner pulley because I could reach down through the starboard hatch in the cockpit seat. The most difficult chore was removing the old cable from the winch drum. I didn't have any wire cutters large or strong enough to snap it off, so I had to use a small hacksaw and a few choice words to accomplish the task. I fed the new rope through one of the side holes in the drum, then through a fat washer, and tied a basic Figure 8 knot. The one suggestion that I would strongly recommend when working on the winch is this: insert a hand-mirror into the glove box and you will be able to look down (up) at its mechanism without lying on the cockpit floor and craning your neck.
I couldn’t be happier with the results. The winch system is now easier to crank and no longer makes that horrible grinding noise from the starboard rear corner inside the transom. The Amsteel line is amazingly strong: I doubt I will ever need that backup spool of line. Never again will I have to worry about meathooks either. And finally, I really like being able to detach and raise the winch line while on the water. It is surprising how much easier it is to move about the cabin without that obstacle hanging down from the ceiling. In the photo below on the left, you can see my admiral peering around the companionway with the double-pulley released and cranked up, completely out of the way. To the right you’ll see what she was looking at: yours truly catching a short cap’ nap on the v-berth.
|
|
