Saturday, November 9, 2013

Winch Maintenance

When I am too old to sail anymore, I will open and operate a shelter for abused and neglected Barient and Barlow winches.  I will not buy any old winches (please note that all Barient winches are old). Rather I will accept donated winches, refurbish these beauties, display them on long shelves, service them yearly, and let kids turn the handles after their parents make a modest donation. The reason for these foolish musing is that I have been servicing and greasing White Pepper's winches this week.

White Pepper has nine winches in all.  Two absolute state of the art Anderson 40s stainless steel self tailing winches are on the coach roof.  The starboard one is motorized and will raise the main sail and lift the dingy onto the boat.  Also on the starboard coach roof is a small Harken 18 winch that raises and lowers the centerboard.  On the port coach roof with the Anderson is a a small Lewmar  16winch that trims the main sheet . This little guy is actually the most powerful winch on the boat.  It is connected  to the traveller with a 6:1 block and tackle arrangement and could pull the mast down with a theoretical 96:1 purchase.  It also has the trickiest little last step to reassemble.  The whole winch has to be lifted up 1/4 inch to accept the locking retaining rings that complete the reassemble process.  It took me 3 or 4 hours one afternoon to figure this out.  Finally on the port coach roof is an original Barient 21 that we used to tighten up the reef line.  It does not get much use anymore.

The pride of the boat, however, are the four Barients on the comings.  The yacht came with a pair of Barient/Barlow 32s as primaries.  These were great winches for their day.  However, it quickly became obvious that they were not powerful enough to grind in the 150% genoa when racing.  I bought two Barient 736s from the redoubtable Robbie Young.  He had just finished performing as bowman for one of the America's Cup contenders and was starting a rigging business in Houston.  He assured me that they were lightly used and like new. They are monstrously large with about a 65:1 ratio.  With a standard 12 inch winch handle the average crew member will generate about 100 foot pounds of force.  This means the genoa sheet will feel 6500 foot pounds of force. This much force will pull in anything.  The 32s were relegated to spinnaker work and controlling the check stays. I paid $7000.00 for the pair of 736s and some design work.  This was quite a lot of money in 1980. I remember  handing over the check and saying that, "I hope they make me happy."  After my first round of servicing these winches I realized they were over 20 years old but so well made that they were, indeed, like new.  And for the most part I have been very pleased with these beasts.

Barient has an interesting and obscure history.  There is no entry in Wikipedia for Barient.  What is known is that the company was founded in San Francisco by two elite yachtsman in the 1950s with an interest in providing innovative deck gear for the America's Cup boats and other grand prix yachts.  One had a yacht named Baruna  and the other had a primo yacht named Orient.   The names were jammed together to form the company name.  It never tried to make a profit.  The company just made winches for the owners and their friends.  Somehow the Barlow Winch Company out of Australia began to make identical products.  For some reason Barient never complained.  However, the quality of the product was so good that nothing else would do.  In 1985 the Lewmar company bought both entities and soon closed both in order to open the field for their own products.  The Australian Winch Company assumed responsibility for service and repair.  However, this was done desultorily at best.  My point is that these wonderful products were orphaned too soon.  They were built so well that they have long out lived any expected use and remain on many older yachts. I have 5 of these museum pieces. And they are museum pieces.  No individual part will ever break, but if some piece becomes corroded or is lost, it can not be replaced.  Hence, service work has to be approached with great reverence and care.

Most regrettably White Pepper has been in storage for two years and the last service was probably three years ago.  I could have been reported for Barient abuse!!
Barient/Barlow 32 ready for service
Drum removed
This winch is serviced from the underneath. Plate has to be pried off.
Bull gear is in the center. Second gear above. Transfer gear that actually moves the drum is on left.
Transfer gear removed. Pawls of second gear exposed. Note winch has been rotated.
Second gear removed. Bull gear still in place around shaft.
Bull gear pulled and pawls exposed.  Pretty grimy!

My recipe which I have followed for years is to clean all of the parts with mineral spirits. This year I had to use bronze wool to clean up the pawls and their housing.   I use 3-in-1 Oil on the pawls (no grease as it sticks) and then lightly grease the actual gears with a proprietary grease such as Harken or Lewmar Winch 
Grease.  All of the screws also get grease so that they will release in another year or two.

For the reassembly I know of no extant manuals, either on paper or on the Internet.  However, like a Sudoku puzzle there is only one unique way to put all of the parts together so that the gears turn. Patience, a good memory or a logical mind will get it back together. Alternatively you could take hundreds of pictures instead of these few upon the disassemble.  In the end there is the wonderful satisfaction of feeling the winch turning effortlessly and hearing the pawls clicking happily.



No comments: