Be careful out there!

[peaman]

I recently decided to re-bed my primary winches to address a leak. I knew they were not the original winches, from holes I had seen in the underside of the coaming of the starboard winch. I had never seen the underside of the port coaming due to the false work and headliner in the quarter berth. Even with the access zippers open, one can see only three of the five bolts securing the winch above, so access by touch is all we have. And even touching the nut on one of those bolts was difficult due to the proximity of what could only be the AC power cable running from the shore power connector to the AC breaker panel. I could feel some defects in the surface of that cable, so with some effort I was able to break away one of the the cable clamps so I could inspect the cable as well as move it away from the winch mounting bolts and potential further damage. The image below shows the damage to the cable: two areas that were probably hit with a drill bit, and one area worn thin from chafing on that one bolt. I was pretty close to having an electrified winch, but not the useful kind. The newly serviced and bedded winch is back in place, and the cable will be protected with some vinyl tubing before going back up above the false work. Be careful out there, especially when working "blind".

 

[vanilladuck]

Not as electrifying as your discovery @peaman... But, when I was taking down the headliner on Rumour before refinishing the deckhead, I noticed these staples for the headliner were going through the wires into the bulkhead. It was only a single conductor, but still a bit shocking to see

Brings new meaning to the phrase "they don't build 'em like they used to"

 

[AK67]

I recently decided to re-bed my primary winches to address a leak. I knew they were not the original winches, from holes I had seen in the underside of the coaming of the starboard winch. I had never seen the underside of the port coaming due to the false work and headliner in the quarter berth. Even with the access zippers open, one can see only three of the five bolts securing the winch above, so access by touch is all we have. And even touching the nut on one of those bolts was difficult due to the proximity of what could only be the AC power cable running from the shore power connector to the AC breaker panel. I could feel some defects in the surface of that cable, so with some effort I was able to break away one of the the cable clamps so I could inspect the cable as well as move it away from the winch mounting bolts and potential further damage. The image below shows the damage to the cable: two areas that were probably hit with a drill bit, and one area worn thin from chafing on that one bolt. I was pretty close to having an electrified winch, but not the useful kind. The newly serviced and bedded winch is back in place, and the cable will be protected with some vinyl tubing before going back up above the false work. Be careful out there, especially when working "blind".

View attachment 55045

Switching to self-tailing winches this spring - very helpful warning. Thank you for being part of what makes this group invaluable to the Ericson owner!