Changing Lewmar 40ST winches to EVO 45ST ?

[tomgaeb]

Dear forumites,

we currently have the Lewmar 40ST as Genua sheet winches fitted on our Bavaria 37 (2006).
This sometimes gets tough so we were considering to swap for larger winches (and in turn make the 40's the halyard winches on the coachroof).

I was/am expecting the larger winch to make quite a difference but was a but surprised when looking at the data sheet.
The power ration of the 40 to the larger 45 goes from 13.2 to 13.9 in first and from 40.2 to 44.8 in second gear.
While this does not sound like that much from the figures I have no idea if this is a big difference or not for practical purposes.
Anybody out there having actually used the two different sizes or done such upgrade ??


The other thing I am wondering about - how hard will it be to get the winches dismounted (assuming the stainless bolts that hold them in the aluminium plate inside the CFK will be nicely seized). Anybody with experience or a technique on this ??

Best
Thomas

[Yngmar]

My Harken 40 on the coachroof have to be removed to service them (the Harken 44 on the Genoa do not), so I've had them off and back on a few times. First time the bolts came out with only minor struggle (spray in some release agent a couple hours before and let it wick in). I've then greased them during remounting and subsequent services they came out easy.

The ratios mean they will make the job exactly 11% easier  . Doubt it's worth the upgrade, and usually the winches are sized to be easy enough to work unless you're seriously over canvassed or they are in poor working condition. Did you service them? Unserviced winches are dangerous and have a lot of extra friction, which means they go harder. Makes a big difference if they haven't been serviced in a while.

Also winch handles come in 8" and 10" length - make sure you're using a long (10") for the Genoa sheets.

When going up a size, the mounting holes will not fit and you will have to drill new ones and cut threads into them. Not a big deal, I've done it when installing secondary winches that the boat didn't have from new - just do it carefully. Breaking off a tap in there would be really annoying.

[Craig]

When we bought our boat we moved the standard Genoa winches to the aft strong points and used those winches for the genoa car, asymmetric or when in the med to adjust the stern lines.

The Lewmar 48 winches were then installed as the Genoa winches. These seem to work well and are much easier than the smaller winches.

There is a problem in installing these larger winches that you need to be careful of. The space between the winch and the surrounding fibreglass lip in the coaming does not allow space to remove the gears for cleaning and greasing if they are not installed with the gap facing outwards. The mounting screws in the base of the Lewmar winches are not spaced uniformly so, if you mount them incorrectly, you need to drill new holes.

Our boat is a Bav 38 ( 2010 model year) so the Lewmar 48 winches should be OK on any boat up to the 38 size. Just beware of the installation.

Craig
"Shirley Valentine"
Gold Coast
Australia