Though I’ve been a fan of using my Milwaukee Tools M28 right angle drill as my winch grinder (and posted about it years ago), it’s not quite as durable a setup as I’d like. Raising our full batten main on Priorities is a pretty hefty strain in particular. The sail probably weighs 80 pounds at full hoist, and when combined with friction results in the drill’s motor getting pretty warm. The battery also gets drained a bunch. I think this strain resulted in the speed control trigger getting stuck on at full power… which definitely gets your attention! This failure happened twice and has required repairs.
Many other Catalina 400 owners have upgraded one of their cabintop winches to electric, and this seemed the best path forward. My M28 drill still works, and remains a great option for use with the primary winches and jib sheets, where the strain is lighter and of shorter duration.
Upgrade kits are available for many old Lewmar Ocean Series winches, including the ones on most 400s. I found conflicting information regarding compatibility with my circa 1995 winch, however. The installation manual says kits are available for winches dating back to 1992 but Defender’s website and tech support at Lewmar put the date around 1996. I’ve had some prior issues with finding lots of metal shavings in my old winch, too, so I avoided these issues by buying an entirely new electric Lewmar Ocean 40. There are other electric winch options out there, some of which are probably better, but I wanted to match the other winches in the cockpit. I could have gotten the next size bigger winch (the 46), but I also hoped the mounting bolt pattern would match, making installation quicker and easier.
Mounting
Mounting was slightly more difficult than planned (doesn’t this always happen?). A Lewmar electric winch is basically a manual winch with an extra mounting base to accommodate a drive shaft that extends through the deck to the electric motor below deck. This base partially sits in a large 1-⅞” hole drilled in the deck for the shaft’s bearing. Figuring out exactly where to drill this giant hole took lots of careful measuring, especially in relation to the mounting bolt pattern.
The new mounting base had almost the same bolt pattern as my original 28 year old winch… almost. Two bolts were in a slightly different position, but so close that I couldn’t just drill two new holes. Additionally, the old winch’s drive gear wasn’t ideally oriented to the load, so I reoriented everything a bit and drilled completely new holes after I drilled the drive shaft hole.
Mounting the motor underneath also took some planning. The motor is bolted to the mounting plate with a “fixing kit,” but my deck was so thick it wouldn’t fit. I ended up buying a 30mm extension kit (Lewmar part #48034501) from Mauri Pro Sailing. It made installation easier, but was horribly expensive for what it was.
Wiring
The wiring is pretty straightforward, though I used really thick 2/00 gauge cables to avoid a large voltage drop with the long DC wire run and potential 135 amp current at peak winch load. Attaching lugs to the ends of these cables definitely requires a heavy duty crimping tool, which isn’t cheap. Over a decade ago, I bought an FTZ Industries Correct Crimp Heavy Duty Crimping Tool thinking I’d use it for just one project, but I’ve used it nearly every year for various projects. MarineHowTo.com has an excellent article on crimping battery cables.
A 90 amp circuit breaker is recommended, which seems a little small, but I haven’t had any nuisance trips yet. I installed the CB a few inches from the main battery switch.
I installed the actuator button in a way that allows us to see the mainsail through the dodger while raising it. Anyone with long hair needs to be careful, but any other reasonable location didn’t cooperate with our full canvas enclosure. The button is quite large and requires another pretty large hole in the deck.
Operation and Safety Considerations
Our electric winch makes quick and easy work of raising the mainsail, almost as fast as jumping it manually from the mast. It’s actually kinda fun, though Lewmar’s button is pretty hard to press. We’ll probably use the winch for lifting our dinghy off the foredeck, too.
In fact, the ease of use is its biggest safety consideration… with a touch of a button we can put over 1000 pounds of force on whatever line is attached to it. That’s strong enough to rip apart a sail that gets caught on something, or may rip hardware right out of the deck.
To avoid overtensioning the main halyard, we stop a few inches short of a full hoist and manually crank in the last bit of tension.
There have been a few publicized cases of serious injuries occurring from electric winches on sailboats as well. One failure point is when the actuator button sticks down and the winch keeps running. In this event we would take the line off the tailer, though this was complicated in one accident event when a crewmember was aloft during the failure. We plan to not use the self tailer when going aloft, and both Kristin and I know where the circuit breaker is if shutting off the winch is needed.
I considered installing a cutout switch just inside the companionway, within reach of the winch to be used if the push button got stuck. However, even if the button sticks while something is caught in the winch… like a crewmember’s long hair or something… releasing the line from the self tailer and easing tension should minimize risk. Perhaps if a line tangles or overrides at the same time the winch runs away there could be unacceptable risk, but overrides have been extremely rare at this winch position for the 12 years I’ve owned the boat.
When done sailing for the day, my plan is to shut off power to the winch. I’ve heard of buttons shorting closed while boats were unattended at the dock, resulting in the winch running until stuff breaks.
Maintenance
According to the manual, there’s no additional maintenance considerations besides routine cleaning of the traditional winch gears and bearings. I wondered if the motor gearbox, which looks very similar to a windlass gearbox, needs regular oil changes. After a little research on the gearbox manufacturer’s website, I’m pretty sure it does not unless the seals leak the oil out.
What I Would Do Different
If I were looking to convert the main cabintop winch to electric again, I would consider a different model. While the Lewmar Ocean 40 works fine, sticking with the same model as before didn’t make installation easier than any different model. Aesthetically it looks good, and it shares the same replacement parts as my other winches, but I could have done better.
Were I to do this over, I’d consider a reversible winch like a Harken Electric Rewind or Lewmar Revo. They allow the winch to ease tension electrically without having to remove the line from the self tailer. This would be a frivolous feature during mainsail handling, but if I could also control it from the foredeck I could easily raise and lower the dinghy or spinnaker sock single-handedly. That would be sweet!
Of course, the price tags of reversible winches are pretty high… perhaps what I have now is just fine!