I’ve been putting off the job of servicing Serina‘s winches for too long now. I finally got around to it in the winter when Serina was ashore at Haven Quay undergoing her annual maintenance with Simon Beaven.

Simon kindly allowed me to work on Serina over the weekend in his workshop – which meant that I was under cover and able to work either from on Serina or on land.

It turned out to be a relatively easy job, but I was very glad to be able to approach it from on land. Being able to reach up into the winch – from underneath – when I re-assembled it was a great advantage.

I needed to hold the lower pawls open against their springs, using a pair of small scredrivers, and don’t think I would have been able to do it had Serina been afloat.

I’m sure that those more experienced than me know of tricks of the trade to accomplish this, but I haven’t learned them yet!

Anyway, a few pictures:

Removing the split ring a the top of the winch is the start of the process.

I found a good oily mess inside.

And spent a happy hour washing everything in white spirit, re-greasing and re-assmbling.

Simon tells me that I should have put some epoxy filler into the screw holes before re-assembling, but I didn’t know that at the time. That’s a job for next winter.

The end result looks very familar but there is now a pleasingly satisfying “click” as the pawls slide home.