Jib Winch Mount Repairs

I have repaired the jib winch mount. Rather than just fill and re-drill I decided to step things up a bit.

These are M8 stainless steel wood inserts. By using these rather then wood screws I can bolt the winch on with M8 machine screws, which means I can take the winch on and off without chewing out the wood. The larger outside diameter of the insert (16mm) means the load is spread over a larger surface area.

The next step was to drill out the existing screw holes to accomodate the inserts. I then epoxy saturated the bores to further strengthen the wood.

I doubled up on the inserts so the bolts really have a strong grip. I had to grind off the skirts at the face of the inserts so they would wind in as a single unit. The inserts can be wound in and out with a large hex key, but to keep the two inserts in line I simply ran a bolt through them as shown and then wound them in with a socket drive. Handy tip: they went in with the epoxy wet, by coating the end of the bolt with a teflon (PTFE) lubricant any epoxy that gets onto the bolt will not stick, making it easy to withdraw the bolt without getting epoxy in the bore of the inserts.

Inserts in place. I later (the next day) realised the one on the lower-left was not inserted straight. All I had to do was use a hex key to wind them back out (the epoxy strengthens the wood, but it does not really stick to the stainless steel), ream the bore with a drill, then re-insert it at the correct angle and it cut itself back into the epoxy saturated wood. No problems at all.

Here the epoxy is setting and I have wound full-length bolts into the inserts, coated in teflon lubricant. Inserting the inserts pushed excess epoxy down the bore where it formed around the bolts sticking out of the end of the inserts. This then set, and once the bolts are withdrawn a threaded channel is left behind. So the actual bolts I use to hold the winch on stick out beyond the end of the inserts by about 40mm, but are effectively still threaded into the mast. Just using expoy to create a threaded channel this way is a common way of installing fasteners into wood spars, but using the stainless steel inserts makes it a lot tougher and less prone to wear from working loads.

Finally, here is the winch base mounted on it's wooden pad, all bolted up to the mast. The masking tape is just to create a clean edge for the bedding compound.

So, all good in theory, but only some serious sailing will show if this stands the test of time. I reckon it will, he publicly declares...