Attaching a set of Winches to cabin top
 

How to go about attaching two winches to the top of cabin. These winches
would be for spinnaker halyard and headsail halyard.

Do the winches come with a base plate? How do you attach the plate of
support for the winches? When the bolts, screws, or fasteners come through
the cabin top there is a ceiling liner under. Do the fasteners come right
through the liner? And then is there a back plate you attach to the inside
on the liner?

Also ,,, a block tack track. ? Attach?

Attaching a set of Winches to cabin top
 

On Wed, 18 Jan 2006 04:09:59 GMT, "Thomas Wentworth"
wrote:

Do the winches come with a base plate? How do you attach the plate of
support for the winches? When the bolts, screws, or fasteners come through
the cabin top there is a ceiling liner under. Do the fasteners come right
through the liner? And then is there a back plate you attach to the inside
on the liner?

I believe that what you are calling a base plate is actually known as
a "backing plate" if I understand your question correctly. If so, the
answer is no. People usually fabricate their own backing plates from
something like 3/16 aluminum or stainless steel sheet. An alternative
to making a backing plate is to use large fender washers.

Your biggest problem is going to be the "ceiling liner", usually known
as a head liner. You will either have to remove and replace, or cut
and patch. The method will depend on how neat you want it to be, and
how much you are willing to spend to get it that way. The fasteners
and backing plate are normally buried under the head liner.

Next you need to determine if the deck is cored or solid at the
mounting location. If cored, you will need to over drill the holes,
fill with thickened epoxy, let cure, and redrill. This is to keep
moisture from getting into the core, and will also make the deck less
compressible.

Attaching a set of Winches to cabin top
 

Winches don't usually come with backing plates or base plates. First,
unless the cabin top is relatively flat you heed to fabricate a base to even
it out. I cut a plywood disk the same diameter as the winch base and
wrapped in in poly sheet. Then I taped the cabin top about 1" wider than
the base and laid a blob of epoxy thickened with silica and milled glass in
the middle. Pushed the disk into the blob and sculpted the edges with a
plastic spreader. Tried to get it level so the inboard side was even with
the deck and the outboard side had a low rise. After the epoxy cured I
sanded it smooth and set the bolt pattern template on top. After removing
the liner inside I drilled about 1/4" wider than the bolts, closed the
bottom side of the holes with good masking tape and filled with unthinned
epoxy. After that cured I drilled the final holes to fit the bolts and
painted. Keep the drill straight up and down or you will have trouble
fitting the backing plate.

I then cut a square of 1/4" 5086 aluminum plate about 2" wider than the
winch and drilled it to the bolt circle. I spread a layer of 4200 on the
flat and with a volunteer down below to hold the plate and start the nuts
fed the bolts through the wench base, the deck and the backing plate and
tightened them down just a little past finger tight so the 4200 squished out
a little. A couple of days later I finished tightening the bolts and
replaced the liner.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"Thomas Wentworth" wrote in message
news:rcjzf.585$Iw3.64@trndny06...
How to go about attaching two winches to the top of cabin. These winches
would be for spinnaker halyard and headsail halyard.

Do the winches come with a base plate? How do you attach the plate of
support for the winches? When the bolts, screws, or fasteners come
through the cabin top there is a ceiling liner under. Do the fasteners
come right through the liner? And then is there a back plate you attach
to the inside on the liner?

Also ,,, a block tack track. ? Attach?

Attaching a set of Winches to cabin top
 

Thanks for the procedure Glen. Much better (for me) than cutting the pad out
of teak and working my butt off getting the radius of the deck.
MMC
"Glenn Ashmore" wrote in message
news:45kzf.8839$Dh.2014@dukeread04...
Winches don't usually come with backing plates or base plates. First,
unless the cabin top is relatively flat you heed to fabricate a base to
even
it out. I cut a plywood disk the same diameter as the winch base and
wrapped in in poly sheet. Then I taped the cabin top about 1" wider than
the base and laid a blob of epoxy thickened with silica and milled glass
in
the middle. Pushed the disk into the blob and sculpted the edges with a
plastic spreader. Tried to get it level so the inboard side was even with
the deck and the outboard side had a low rise. After the epoxy cured I
sanded it smooth and set the bolt pattern template on top. After removing
the liner inside I drilled about 1/4" wider than the bolts, closed the
bottom side of the holes with good masking tape and filled with unthinned
epoxy. After that cured I drilled the final holes to fit the bolts and
painted. Keep the drill straight up and down or you will have trouble
fitting the backing plate.

I then cut a square of 1/4" 5086 aluminum plate about 2" wider than the
winch and drilled it to the bolt circle. I spread a layer of 4200 on the
flat and with a volunteer down below to hold the plate and start the nuts
fed the bolts through the wench base, the deck and the backing plate and
tightened them down just a little past finger tight so the 4200 squished
out
a little. A couple of days later I finished tightening the bolts and
replaced the liner.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"Thomas Wentworth" wrote in message
news:rcjzf.585$Iw3.64@trndny06...
How to go about attaching two winches to the top of cabin. These
winches
would be for spinnaker halyard and headsail halyard.

Do the winches come with a base plate? How do you attach the plate of
support for the winches? When the bolts, screws, or fasteners come
through the cabin top there is a ceiling liner under. Do the fasteners
come right through the liner? And then is there a back plate you attach
to the inside on the liner?

Also ,,, a block tack track. ? Attach?