mounting a winch

[jimmd]

mounting a winch - not a wench

thinking of running lines to the cockpit on an old (1975) grampian 23. this would entail mounting a winch,organizer and clutches on the cabin roof. how should these be attached. is a proper backing plate sufficient? this is not a big boat or a big sail but i know that loads are always more than you really think they are.
i would really hate to tear the roof off!!!!

[knothead]

Originally Posted by jimmd

mounting a winch - not a wench

thinking of running lines to the cockpit on an old (1975) grampian 23. this would entail mounting a winch,organizer and clutches on the cabin roof. how should these be attached. is a proper backing plate sufficient? this is not a big boat or a big sail but i know that loads are always more than you really think they are.
i would really hate to tear the roof off!!!!

Tearing the cabin top off would certainly ruin your day.

A proper backing plate should be fine. If you have a headliner, you obviously want to remove it so that you are bolting through the deck only. If you can't remove it, you can cut holes through it and then make some nice wood cover plates to cover the holes.

[Crapaud]

I am doing the same to my Pearson 26 -- this weekend in fact. Since it has a headliner, I was instructed to use a hole saw big enough to get a large washer and socket through and I found some plastic (nylon) hole caps at Lowes to plug the liner.

I read an article online of a guy who molded the female threads into his cabin top with the winch bolts, wax applied to the threads and epoxy. It did eleviate the need to drill through the headliner, but I am not comfortable with the epoxy threads under heavy loads. Comments?

JP

[knothead]

Originally Posted by Crapaud

I am doing the same to my Pearson 26 -- this weekend in fact. Since it has a headliner, I was instructed to use a hole saw big enough to get a large washer and socket through and I found some plastic (nylon) hole caps at Lowes to plug the liner.

I read an article online of a guy who molded the female threads into his cabin top with the winch bolts, wax applied to the threads and epoxy. It did eleviate the need to drill through the headliner, but I am not comfortable with the epoxy threads under heavy loads. Comments?

JP

I don't think I would be comfortable with that either.
Deck hardware should be through bolted.
I would (and have) used a hole saw big enough to be able to insert a backing plate of the same diameter as the hardware that I was bolting. Then, I made 3/8" mahogany cover plates to cover the holes in the liner.