Bosa - 7 September 2021

Today has been a hive of activity above deck. The guys from the boatyard have serviced the generator, fitted a new connector for joining the vang (boom downhaul) to the mast and put together the large winch, whose innards we had sent to the manufacturers, Andersen, two year ago, to be repaired. The winch has only worked manually since we have owned the boat, so it will be a delight to have it operating electrically, as it should, especially as it is huge.

The old piece connecting the vang to the mast had fused together as they were made from stainless steel and aluminum, not a good combination. In the end an angle grinder was used to cut it off, once the replacement had been carefully checked to ensure that there were no parts of the old bit still needed. 


The winch was the biggest challenge. The new electrical motor has to be fitted under the deck, accessible only by lying on your back in the rope locker. The motor then has to be lifted into place precisely to mate with the above deck parts. It weighs about 25 kilos and you have to lift it from above your head, from an awkward position. Every time we found we needed something else to help with the process, poor Alessandro had to goe back to the workshop to collect it. We are the furthest boat from the workshop. Anyway, eventually we had it all in place and working beautifully in manual mode, when Alessandro went to connect the electric supply and switches, to find that one would not reach, while the other had masses of slack. We had to disassemble most of it and rotate the electric motor to get the connections close enough to reach. The second time it did not go back together quite so easily, but ultimately successfully.    Finishing touches to be applied tomorrow when hopefully we will have this winch fully operational for the first time since we have owned the boat.

Communication with guys from the boatyard, Alesandro and Matti, continues to be stilted, but we’re managing reasonably well.

It’s really starting to feel the Equinox is coming back to life.

Steve & Tricia

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