Moving genoa sheet winches aft

[John Langford]

I have searched and not found any threads on moving the foresail winches on MKIIs aft along the coaming so that they can be easily accessed from behind the wheel by a single hander. I have done some measuring and it looks feasible as long as the port side winch is positioned to provide enough room for the locker cover. Both winches would have to be placed on "Starboard" pads high enough to allow the winch handle to clear the lower lifeline. On the starboard side it looks as if the optimal position might even allow for accessing the attachment bolts through the aft overhead light fixture in the aft cabin. The sheeting angles look pretty good and it would also be possible to get rid of the deck blocks on both sides thus reducing friction when sheeting in.

Those are my thoughts so far. If anyone else has done this or thought more clearly about it I would be delighted to hear from you. This is not the kind of thing you want to do until you have worked it out completely.

[Steve Hansen]

John,
have not done this upgrade but I remember seeing this recently in Tom's website- Julandra's projects, a C36 I believe. Scroll through to picture #85 and you will see a picture of thr primary Jib winch in its new position. Here is the link- 
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=4288188659&code=13911531&mode=invite&DCMP=isc-email-AlbumInvite
Steve

[Stu Jackson]

John, In addition you'll (obviously) need to assure that you clear the vertical ss to the pulpit.  I do a LOT of singlehanded sailing and haven't seen the need to move the winches because I spend most of my time forward of the wheel.  Our Autohelm 3000 is mounted on the coaming just to the starboard side of the wheel, right in a line with the wheel, so it is accessible from both behind and forward of the wheel.  Many times I don't bother using the autopilot and steer by hand from forward of the wheel, too.  I understand that on the newer boats the binnacle guard is a lot higher than ours and that the autopilot functions are on the guard so that one has to be behind the wheel to steer reasonably with the AP.  I just find that being "my own passenger" being in the cockpit freed from being behind the wheel when singlehanding is a lot of fun!  I tack either manually or with the AP and just use the winches in their original positions. I guess you've tried this before and opt to move the winches.  With the reference to Tom's homepage, it looks like it should be a relatively easy task.  Tom also contributes to our site here and may add more if he looks in on this thread.  If not, post on the www.catalina36.org technical Questions site as a guest and I'm sure he'll read it.  I joined their C36 site as a member, too.

[Ron Hill]

John : I'm sure that you've made sure that there isn't a conflict between your winch handle and the bows for the Bimini.