Each march west marine has a 2 for 1 windlass sale on Lewmar winches. Now we have Lewmar winches and our two main winches. Are a bit tired.

The winch to raise the main halyard is a Lewmar 30 self tailing that I don’t think was ever serviced over the past 30 years. One of the gears was slipping and unusable and the other was getting there. Now this is also the winch we use to raise the children up the mast when there is work to do. SO I was thinking perhaps not a repair or service but rather a replacement.

This winches counterpart, used to raise the jib halyard (every once and a while) and to serve as our safety for raising the children up the mast, and also for our single line reefing which is important if you didn’t reef early enough.. was another Lewmar 30 but this one not self tailing. Which wasn’t a big deal but I’m planning on single handing so I want all of my winches self tailing.

This seemed like the perfect opportunity for a 2 for 1 sale, and so last year after missing the sale I told myself that no matter what I’d take advantage the next time it came around and of course it came this past March. Just days after I paid off my Apple Card it comes and I fill the Apple Card back up.. But it was for a good and necessary cause.

The Lewmar 30 self tailing winch that needed replaced was a drop in replacement. The bolt spacing hasn’t changed in all these years. The non-tailing however wasn’t exactly a drop in replacement which surprised me. I needed to drill two new holes for bolts.. One was quite a bit off, maybe 1/4 of an inch and the other was just next to the first so the holes drilled actually became more of an 8 shape or perhaps not oven that more of a 0 where they were basically just a bit too wide.

I must confess that I should have filled the old holes with epoxy but I didn’t I was too excited to have the project done and too excited to try out my new winches so I just bolted everything down and it’s so great having new winches.

100% a great and needed upgrade. Expensive but well worth it. Now I just need to make sure I service my two Jib winches this year so I don’t ever need to replace them due to neglect.