It is often frustrating to remove and reinstall the standard HANSA winch in these boats; when resolving a winch problem, taking 20+ minutes to reinstall it can spoil your whole racing day ! As well as trying to line up the mounting brackets with the centre GRP housing, getting the bolts back in place can be a testing fiddle. Two simple jobs can be done to make this much easier:
Drill the holes in the GRP console slightly oversize to about 7mm
Find someone with a metal lathe and make a set of 'Probe' bolts to locate and align the holes with the SS winch frame. Suggested dimensions are 15mm of M6 thread, plus 10mm of section turned down to 5.5mm with a slightly tapered end (see attached photo) To avoid interference with the SS winch frame, overall length should not be more than 25mm.
Attached photo is simply to illustrate the principle. Preferred bolt would be SS with hexagon head because there is little room to apply a screwdriver in some hulls
It is often frustrating to remove and reinstall the standard HANSA winch in these boats; when resolving a winch problem, taking 20+ minutes to reinstall it can spoil your whole racing day ! As well as trying to line up the mounting brackets with the centre GRP housing, getting the bolts back in place can be a testing fiddle. Two simple jobs can be done to make this much easier: