Repairing winch base mount on wooden spar
 

Hi all,
I have a Cheoy Lee offshore 48 ketch with wooden spars.
A couple of the built up base mounts for winches are showing cracks around the perimeter where they flare up from the mast. I'm looking for a bit of advice on what I should do to repair these.
The spars are spruce box construction with these winch base mounts elevated from the face of the spar.
Any advice would be appreciated
Thanks,
KM

I am not picturing the problem. In my experience such a pad would be as thin as possible, really only serving to give the winch a little down-angle to prevent riding hitches or, if you're still cursed with wire reel winches, then normal to the load to allow for level-winding. The pads don't actually strengthen the mast wall and infact if built out too far can weaken the whole structure by putting more angular pull, less shear vector, on the fastenings.

Maybe post a picture.

G'luck

More details would help. Painted or varnish? Checks or splits? Your choice is repair or replace. I have done both at various times. My halyard winches are mounted right to the mast without a base so the issue has not come up there. I don't get overrides but sometimes my crew does. My boat is also painted so when I did repair, it was fill the checking and paint over it. My tendency is to soak everything in West System and fill the cracks with thickened West. The other school of thought is that this filling will cause more cracks to form as the wood changes size with the weather and the filling acts like a wedge. My thought is that once the surrounding area is soaked with west, nothing changes size any more.

Allen Edwards
Lapworth-36 #5
Papoose
http://L-36.com

checks are not the end of the world. The only concern I would have is if the integrity of the base was effected. In any case I would remove the winches and thoroughly inspect the base for rot etc. If every thing looks good I would sand out the base and checks and fill with thickened west systems. Use the 404 filler straight if painted or with some sawdust if bright.

Jake

Use West System 407. It is stronger than the wood and more comparable in that it has a bit of give. Also, much easier to work with and it is almost wood color if that matters. Other than that, I agree completely with the previous post.

Use West System 407. It is stronger than the wood and more comparable in that it has a bit of give. Also, much easier to work with and it is almost wood color if that matters. Other than that, I agree completely with the previous post.