Squeezed the grease out of my winch

AdamLein · #1 (**permalink**) 08-24-2009

So I managed to squeeze some grease out of my Barlow #16 single speed winch yesterday. I had the anchor rode around the winch (it's one of my spinnaker sheet winches) because I was practicing anchoring and things weren't going well. There was a sizable load on the rode, not terribly large, but enough to squeeze grease out through the interface between the drum and the inner bit that you put the handle into. Not a lot of grease, just a small bead running about a third of the circumference of the interface. But still, kind of cool/scary!

I'm wondering if using my winch in this manner is a bad idea (bad for the winch I mean, I've already discovered that the winch is not an ideal substitute for a windlass), and whether it's entirely crucial that I immediately disassemble and regrease the winch, or whether this is normal, if unusual, behavior for a winch under load. Never seen it do this flying the chute, but the winch itself seems fine now.

Conditions were fairly benign: about 10 knots, had the main up and drawing to set the anchor.

bheintz · #2 (**permalink**) 08-24-2009

Hmm, I admit I've never seen this happen with Barient, Lewmar, or Harken winches. Is the load from the anchor from the same direction as the spinnaker? Typically winches are designed such that they need to be oriented to the max load. You might want to take a look at your drum bearings.

TQA · #3 (**permalink**) 08-24-2009

There will be grease left in there so I would not sweat it.

I did mine annually as a liveaboard. Less often when only using them for a few weeks a year.

AdamLein · #4 (**permalink**) 08-24-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by bheintz

Hmm, I admit I've never seen this happen with Barient, Lewmar, or Harken winches. Is the load from the anchor from the same direction as the spinnaker? Typically winches are designed such that they need to be oriented to the max load. You might want to take a look at your drum bearings.

Interesting! I did not know that about orientation. I'd say the load was... sort of in the same direction as the sheets. Normally I run the sheets through blocks all the way aft. The tension was between 45 and 60 degrees aft the beam.