Deceptive Barlow 28 Winches

I ran off to the marina intent on servicing my primary Barlow 28 winches. That was the plan.

Instead of placing a cardboard box over the winch to catch any of those jumping-jack springs from diving overboard, I devised a more substantial and fail-proof contraption.

Our firewood transport bucket was sacrificed for the job. I cut the "symmetric" whole with a sharp chisel. Now, you may say, "that's a hell of a big hole." But look at the next picture.

It was an optical illusion. After rounding out the jagged edges with a knife it was a perfect tight fit and wouldn't budge even when applying some force to it.

So far so good. Next, I cleaned the accumulated gunk in the winch handle hole with paper towels and...what's this? No retaining bolt, nothing but a smooth concave cavity. I cleaned and checked the other winch - same thing! My smaller Barlows have retaining bolts. That's how you get the drum off.

Sat down, took a couple of deep breaths and looked at the view.

The transient dock is full already. The sailboat Capella was here last year. I helped the owner of the Lagoon catamaran dock earlier this week (either this or another one). That's one big floating apartment. Ugly may be too strong of an adjective, but a beauty it ain't. But I can see it's advantages, price not being one of them.

Oh yes, back to my winch dilemma. Next, I cleaned and inspected  the two small wholes at the top which revealed nothing useful. My only option would be to unbolt the winches, base and all, from the boat and take them to a machine shop and let somebody smarter than me figure it out. 

Then it occurred to me: "how the hell did I service them last time, years ago?" Answer: "I haven't got a clue." That's why it's important to keep a blog-log.

Then the office called me to say I had a small translation in my mailbox for today. Yes, I'm still working. Broke out the laptop, finished the translation and then went home defeated and moaning about how much two winches of this size would cost. At this rate I'll never break free. Damn boat!

Just to show you what a fool I am, it took me 15 minutes to solve the winch mystery on Youtube. Those two small holes are used to spin the cap off and, presto, the drum is free to slide up. How anybody survived before the Internet is a mystery.

Here's the enlightening video. Although it's a Barient 28 winch, the drum removal process is the same. It even shows a nifty trick on how to remove the cap without the two-pronged tool to fit the holes.

There's no end to this boat slavery.