For a long time, we have wanted to switch our only non-self tailing winch to one that is self tailing. This winch is on our boom and is very important while you are reefing in a blow. Having a self tailer would literally free up a hand!
The problem is new winches are expensive, so the project got put onto the back burner until we happened across an affordable winch. For 3 years, we have searched every consignment shop in 5 states, and 8 countries, all looking for the right winch.
One day in Almerimar, Spain, a fellow cruiser was having a yard sale on the back of his boat. He was changing gear and systems and selling the unused components. They had winches, but they were much too large or not self tailing, so once again, we had no winch to complete our project.
The night before they left, he came by our boat with one more winch that he was selling: an Andersen 12ST.
The family was doing some questionable modifications to their boat, such as removing all the booms from their ketch and replacing all the sails with Genoas. I know, it sounds strange and I personally don’t think it would work out too well, but he was selling the winch that was on the boom he had just removed!
Best of all was the price! They were heading towards the Americas and wanted to sell it for US Dollars, so we paid him $60 for this used but very functional winch.
Now we had the last of the components to install the winch on the boom!
I began removing the boom in the morning to mount the new winch on the side of the boom when I ran into a small problem. The screws at the front of the boom were rather seized on there. I tried to force them off and started to strip the head of the screw. I could cut the head off and replace the screw after but I needed to secure a replacement screw first.
This was the next roadblock. We are in Spain and our boat uses imperial sizes fasteners. The closest machine screw to what I need is an M6, but an M6 does not fit because the thread count is different. I stopped the project and put everything back where it was, and all the bits and pieces of the winch project will be stowed in a bag for when we arrive in a country that sells imperial fasteners.
