Can anyone identify this winch please

[TQA]

I have this winch fitted to my 1978 Bombay Explorer. It lifts and lowers the swing keel on a wire.

Can anyone identify the make for me please. As far as I can see there are no numbers or letters anywhere but I have not dismantled it. [ I am a founder member of the 'If it aint broke don't fix it' club.

It operates in an unusual manner. I can wind 3 to 5 turns in either direction before it gets very stiff, I then wind 1 or 2 turns in the opposite direction then it frees off and I can wind 3 to 5 turns again. It does this if there is load on the cable or not. Is this normal??

[Rachel]

I don't want to chase you off from here (far from it!), but you might ask on the Trailer Sailor forum. I know there was just a long discussion or two on swing keel winches/replacement/brands within the last week or so.

(Of course someone might be along here, too :)

http://bbs.trailersailor.com/forums/tra ... /index.cgi

[TQA]

I suspect that this was a halyard winch for a wire halyard rather than a trailor sailor winch. I have had a couple of trailor sailors and the winches were much smaller and looked less expensive.

This is a pretty serious lump of bronze and looks very well engineered.

BTW the boat is a 44 foot ex IOR design and the swing keel is a large weighted foil which increases the draft from 5 to 9 1/2 feet.

[Rachel]

Oops! Definitely not a trailer sailor then. I am sorry for the inappropriate lead :blush:

[Mario G]

Souinds like it could use a good taking apart cleaned and greased. You want to look at the grears if you haven't seen them before. I would also question the cable if I didn't know its age.

A 44' swing keel sounds sweet, all that room with out grounding. Can you post a picture?

[TQA]

The cable was renewed by the previous owner. I am reluctant to strip down the winch as it does work at the moment and I can raise and lower the foil.

But as I said it's operation does not strike me as normal and there may be some lurking problem which requires spare parts or some arcane adjustment. I would like to be prepared before I delve into it's innards.

I am heading down to Grenada and will be thee for a while including a haulout so I have an opportunity to work on the winch.

I am very pleased with the boat on the whole I wanted something faster than my previous heavy 38 foot steel Ryton 38 and she can fly. I also needed something that I could singlehand.