This winter Tim and I took a trip to Massachusetts to see Jeff Maher's newly renovated Triton (hull 30). While we were there, Jeff noticed me eyeing a grungy pair of Lewmar 25 winches that he had sitting around. Since Jeff has been working to get the classic original hardware for his boat, he had no real need for the Lewmars, and after a bit of negotiation, a deal was struck for the 2 Lewmars as well as a pair of Spartan Marine bronze winch bases, all at a favorable price.

Cruddy Inside and Out

The down side to the trade was that the winches needed some serious cleaning. A quick spin of the drum showed that the pawls were totally gummed up, and I guessed that the winches probably hadn't been cleaned and lubed in 10 years or more. Additionally, much of the chrome is flaking off, exposing the bronze beneath. This seemed a small price to pay, however, for 2 solid Lewmar winches that I could use to replace my aging Merriman winches.

When I got the winches home, I spent some time pulling them apart and inspecting them. As I suspected, the winches were in perfectly sound condition, but simply needed a good cleaing.

I also considered the possibility of having the chrome stripped . I don't care about having them rechromed, necessarily, but it would be nice to have them fully stripped, rather than half chrome, half bronze. I wanted to do the stripping myself, but some investigation online lead me to change my tune. Although it is possible to strip chemically strip chrome by electrolysis in an acidulated bath, you are left with a solution which is full of hexavalent chromium, which is a carcinogen, and should be disposed as a hazardous material. After some consideration, I decided no to bother, at least for this season. If it really bothers me this year, I'll have the drums stripped at a shop.

Diesel and grease

Getting the winches in working order was really not much work at all. I cleaned the two winches separately, so that I wouldn't get parts confused between the two. The procedure was to strip the winch apart, soak the parts in diesel for a couple of hours to help loosen the old crud, scrub each part with an old toothbrush, and allow them to dry thoroughly.

Once the parts were clean and dry, I reassembled the winches applying a thin layer of waterproof lithium based grease to all bearings, and gears, as well as the central spindle I was careful not to get any grease on the pawls, pawl springs, or ratchet surfaces. These recieved a thin coat of light oil. That's really all there is to it.