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Are winch pads really necessary?

I pulled off the dilapidated teak coamings upon which the Genoa winches are mounted, thinking I would replace them. But now I am considering potting the holes and either applying gel coat or paint.

D7A3F995-FC34-48ED-9740-170844EA5A78.jpeg

My question is, “Do I really need a substrate such as the teak combings or a winch pad to mount the winches on?”
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
It might be best to back up the question a bit. What you gotta have is an up-angle of several degrees for the sheet lead into the winch drum.
If the line "approach" is too near to flat, you will get overrides on the drum.
I had this problem often with the stock sheet winch location on the flat part of the rear side deck on the Olson. I and quite a few other owners have put risers (or a plinth, great word BTW) under each winch. This 99% ended our problem with overrides.
So first, check the path of the sheet from the last block to the bottom of the knurled drum part of your winch.
There is a "plan B" for this: put an angled riser under the winch so the the winch itself is tilted away from the sheet lead. This gives the desired angle, but may look slightly odd on some boats, and also may make wielding the winch handle awkward.
As long as the coring is solid under the winch and you have backing plates or over size washers the deck will be plenty strong enough.
Our project:
https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/threads/olson-34-reno-projects.9853/#post-66550 (see reply 13)
 
Last edited:
It might be best to back up the question a bit. What you gotta have is an up-angle of several degrees for the sheet lead into the winch drum.
If the line "approach" is too near to flat, you will get overrides on the drum.
I had this problem often with the stock sheet winch location on the flat part of the rear side deck on the Olson. I and quite a few other owners have put risers (or a plinth, great word BTW) under each winch. This 99% ended our problem with overrides.
So first, check the path of the sheet from the last block to the bottom of the knurled drum part of your winch.
There is a "plan B" for this: put an angled riser under the winch so the the winch itself is tilted away from the sheet lead. This gives the desired angle, but may look slightly odd on some boats, and also may may wielding the winch handle a little awkward.
As long as the coring is solid under the winch and you have backing plates or over size washers the deck will be plenty strong enough.
Our project:
https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/threads/olson-34-reno-projects.9853/#post-66550 (see reply 13)
Wow! That was some project!
 

goldenstate

Sustaining Member
Blogs Author
I suspect sanding and some oxalic acid plus varnish might cosmetically enliven your existing teak dramatically and at a low cost of money and time such that you could return to ‘normal’ and sidestep this question entirely.
 

G Kiba

Sustaining Member
Although I can't tell from your picture but it looks like that teak also serves to keep water out of the cockpit when healed over. Something you would not discover until you sail the boat. You could maybe replace the wood with Starboard which would never need to be refinished. I have found that some things I thought where practical changes were not so after a good sail.
 

Jerry VB

E32-3 / M-25XP
Although I can't tell from your picture but it looks like that teak also serves to keep water out of the cockpit when healed over.
No, the coaming is fully formed in fiberglass. On my '77 E27, the coaming is identical but without the (cosmetic) teak on top of the fiberglass.
 

Bolo

Contributing Partner
I don't have the same boat, mine is an Ericson 32-3, but I have no teak or winch pads under the head sail winches and they work fine. Since the top of the coamings have been covered with the teak and sort of protected, is there a chance that you could just clean, compound and polish the surface to bring it back to something close to the original finish?
 
I don't have the same boat, mine is an Ericson 32-3, but I have no teak or winch pads under the head sail winches and they work fine. Since the top of the coamings have been covered with the teak and sort of protected, is there a chance that you could just clean, compound and polish the surface to bring it back to something close to the original finish?
That is what I am planning on trying.
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
FWIW, and that's not too much, I repaired a crack in a teak "donut" that served as a spacer for the heater stack on our prior boat. It looked good for several years and we kept it varnished, and then it must have warped further and... cracked again. (sigh) Teak is awesome material, but it can degrade over time when exposed to UV and rain.
 

Kenneth K

1985 32-3, Puget Sound
Blogs Author
If you want to revive the teak, I'd say it could be sanded, have cracks glued and filled, be refinished, and would look good as new. But then you're stuck with more teak to refinished every year or two.

Without the teak, I see no reason to add winch pads. But either way, just use good backing plate(s) beneath the coaming.

I made poured epoxy bases for my cabin top winches (to replace the original, cracked teak bases) but it probably wasn't necessary. Others have bolted theirs directly to the cabin top. As Loren said, it all depends on the entry angle of the line to the winch. But even this angle can be altered by placing a pad-eye or rope clutch in front of the winch. My details here: https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/ubs/running-rigging-redux.825/
 
Last edited:

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Take the teak home, winches too, and rebuild them both. Winch is just clean and grease.

I would do as suggested above, sand the teak smooth, use epoxy and clamp the voids back together, then attack with Oxalic acid bleach and teak oil. Or CPES the wood and varnish seven coats.

These pieces are probably the showpiece of the cockpit, so worth some interest and time (or would be to me).

I guess you should test the lead of the sheets to the winches. If the leads are Ok, meaning don't make riding turns, no risers needed.
 

goldenstate

Sustaining Member
Blogs Author
Yes! Do it anyway! I put off doing brightwork cosmetics in my boat for two years and and I committed this week and am enormously glad I did. I stained the teak, and am in the throes of varnishing. The best part is that once the teak is this silvered, you can only make improvements. There is no downside. Here are my rails, pre staining and varnishing:

IMG_5841.jpg


Having a nice solid contrast color vs. the silver/white gelcoat looks great. Someone here will tell you to use thirteen coats with sanding and five weeks total. Ignore them. Just sand it, make it a nice color and use some spar urethane. That's my take, anyway.

I have seen a few of the -2 series Ericsons around my marina and the ones with your coamings nicely varnished look sexy-classic. I think it's unlikely you can do a better job with winch positioning vs. what the boatyard fabricated in '74.
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Oxalic acid is dirt cheap, Make a strong solution and paint it on the dry, aged, lightly sanded teak. Do it in bright sun, if possible. Apply the bleach five times if necessary, letting it dry. then thoroughly wash with water. The teak goldens like honey. Most varnishes and oils produce tone, so teak is usually not stained. To see how wood will look after varnish, wipe it with alcohol. It will look like that.

We can sand teak rails and such as necessary to remove lumpy surface caused by neglect or a former worker who scrubbed with a stiff brush with the grain, which is bad method. The oil in teak protects it from weather but not aggression--which I learned the hard way.
 

Bolo

Contributing Partner
You‘ll get a lot of advice on finishing old teak here in this thread and in many others on this site. Everyone has their preferred methods and, although I’m not and expert on this subject, I use Sikkens cetol marine on all of my exterior teak because it’s tough, lasts longer then varnish and is easy to apply. Some might say it’s not as nice looking as varnish but I think it has an appealing color all of its own. Plus it allows moisture to go through it which is why I started using it on my taffrail which always blistered and peeled when varnish was applied. I’ve attached a closeup photo, from my blog on a traveler upgrade, that show a piece of teak I painted with Sikkens cetol marine.
3CA223A7-F986-41EC-8116-9C38A545FC3D.jpeg
 
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