Strip Down Anchor Winch - Externals

The first service on the winch was a bit daunting and the manuals don't really give a good account of how to go about this. After a bit of investigating, I came up with the following.

Periodically... (And there's a question in itself. I have heard once a year, once every 3 months, and once a month. I think I'll go quarterly.) Periodically, dismantle the above-deck parts, clean thoroughly and apply a small amount of Marine Grade teflon grease to all bearing surfaces and reassemble - thus says the manual.

The above-deck parts.
Drop a winch handle into the clutch-nut, turn anti-clockwise and remove.
With the clutch-nut out, the drum assembly (inc. washer) can be pulled off vertically.

Unscrew the chain stripper. As you can see, I had a bit of a problem with this. Some penetrating oil and a little urging with an impact driver solved that problem. On reassembly, I will replace the screws with new and smear some anti-seize grease around them.
Once the chain stripper is off, the gypsy and distance piece can be pulled off.

The gypsy pawl just pulls out. The gypsy carrier / main shaft assembly can be raised by about 2cm. To completely remove the gearbox needs to be dropped from inside the boat.

It should be possible to clean out below the gypsy carrier with a brush & solvent before smearing grease around the shaft. The other parts can be cleaned and grease as well. Assembly is the reverse of the sequence, above.

V-Berth Wiring

During renovation on the V-berth, a new hull liner was added and the head-liner was replaced. As much of the new wiring as possible was secured behind this so it's a good idea to keep a note of were all the important bits are if I ever need to get into it...

Forward-starboard side. This terminal block services the forward running lights.

Main terminal block. This during installation, it services the cabin lights, bi-light, red lights and cabin fans.

Simpson And Lawrence Anchorman 700

Everything I need to know about this anchor winch.

Manuals

• Exploded Diagram and Parts List
  (from the excellent SL Spares site)
• Installation, Operation and Servicing Manual (as above)

Servicing

• Externals
  

And it's all over...

Having stripped down and removed the winch from the boat, there were some obvious problems. The gear box leaked from both ends. The motor end was a problem because it was dripping oil into the v-berth. The other end was letting water, sand and salt into the internals - pretty clearly trashing the whole gearbox unit. Inspection of other parts revealed that some bearings needed replacing. The winch would probably keep going for another year if I kept it topped up with gearbox oil and was prepared to live with oily sheets (and I'm not!).

I got in contact with John at SL Spares who was most helpful. He could certainly supply the parts to Aus. In the end, though, it came down to cost. New parts plus delivery would cost about a third to half as much as a new winch. That replacement would certainly renew the winch. The motor, however, would remain and I am just not sure how much more life there is in it. I want a few years of trouble-free usage so I opted for the new one.

There will be a whole new post about that baby.

Portlights and Hatches Renovation

All of the portlights and ceiling hatches need some work, if only a clean-up. Each of them will checked out for the following:

• Replace the rubber seal. Some of these have become brittle and deformed raising the possibility of leaks. Clark Rubber sell a circular cross-section foam seal that is a good replacement. This is glued in place with a shoe rubber sole adhesive.
  
• Hinges and handles will be lubricated with silicone grease.
• The frames will be cleaned with isocol.
• The windows will be polished. Car-body cutting compound or Brasso on a drill-mounted polishing cloth may do the trick. The intention is to restore the transparency of the windows which seems to be badly effected by very fine surface abrasions. These can also be cleaned with isocol and a polish (car wax?) applied. A little experimentation wouldn't go amiss.
• Check for leaks.
  

Large portlight on starboard-side above the nav table.
Polishing:

Here's a good old before / after shot. The product we finally went with - after a bit of experimenting - was Renovo Plastic Polish (available here).

Before Renovo.
After Renovo once. Apparently this needs a few goes but just one go-over is pretty impressive.

Trip Home

Got a good window seat on the flight back and we went right over the city.

We live down there somewhere.
Coming over Cockatoo Island - something we often circumnavigate.
And a couple of days later, it did this.

Snorkelling and Diving

Couldn't go this close to the reef without getting wet.

There's Kim snorkelling.
One of the reef fish.
Giant Clam.
Typical outer-reef coral garden.
Sadly, you can't eat much of what is out here.
On to the diving. This was my buddy, Oman. Oman is from Israel so we kept our eyes on the passports.
And this is me. Quite possibly doing the Macarena.
With a bit more depth, you start losing colour at the red-end.
The first reef was probably one of the best I've ever seen. Fish soup.

Green Island

In Australia, things tend to be named literally. Green Island is no exception.

This is a cay (sand island) that happens to have a bit of rain-forest on it. It's the perfect desert island, really. Well, other than the fact that there is a restaurant / swimming pool / etc on it.
And a gift shop.
There's a good beach with lifeguards.
And - oh joy - a big thing. In this case a Big Tuna.

Marina

Can't help ourselves when it comes to looking at all things boat.

Hotel room view - you can see boats.
The super-yacht section of the marina. I would like to say that the one in the middle will be our next boat.
We're more likely to be on a swing-mooring in the river with the rest of the riffraff.
But where-ever you start, this is where you go. The channel markers leading out of Cairns to the open ocean.

Casino Zoo

Near the harbour, one of the biggest buildings in Cairns is the casino - and right on top of it is a roof-zoo. Be rude not to...
Have to be careful not to tread on the inmates.
This guy likes to take your specs and run off with them.
A fresh-water croc - pussycat, really.
The real deal - a fully-grown salty.
Cute, of course.
Looks harmless but will trash your garden in minutes.
I got to join in the bird-show with this little Rozella.

April Runaround

Took the rellies out for a motor around the harbour and Les took the sort of piccies we can't - because we're usually on the boat.

Prepping the dinghy. Brandy is all sorted in her life-jacket.

A slow motor out to the Bug on the electric outboard. We'll probably go petrol in the near future.

That's pretty much the motoring configuration with the dinghy on a tow.
All ready for docking. This is the calm before the storm - i.e. the bit where we get really close to the dock.

Wedding

This was the wedding of Lynley and Ross...

All dressed up and somewhere to go.
Likewise.
First stop, the church.
Guarded by men in skirts.
There's a couple of Rollers so we're probably in the right place.
Here's Kim doing the Motor Show model thing.
As it's a catholic church, there is no ostentatious display of wealth at all.
Here's Mary. You can pray to Mary, apparently. Though I've never quite understood how praying to someone other than an omniscient god really helps.
Me on the beach.
St Benedict. With a stick.
Right, that's over, we can go outside.
On to the reception. At Bonnie Doon golf club. Really, there is a golf club called Bonnie Doon.
Waiting for the festivities to start.
Who this is all about.
The girls between fags breaks.
There was speaches.
And cake cutting.
And dancing.
So we finished as we started.