Winch Problem

[swordfish1227]

I am a sailboat racer and have a little problem that some of our members may be able to help with.

I am sailing on a One Design 48 ( http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1707147/0/ ) and  the aft (runner) winches are broken, apparently a problem to do with some springs that have been destroyed through use over the years. Our problem is that these winches were made just for this type of boat and only 24 winches were made. that means that there is a grand total of 96 of these springs in existence. If anyone knows someone who can make the springs, has schematics of the springs, or has some of these springs, please reply here.

The winches are aeromarine winches and the springs are shaped like the omega symbol with flanges on each side.

[TacitBlue]

First of all, I know absolutely nothing whatsoever about sailing. That said, this may be a dumb idea, but couldn't you replace the winches with entirely different ones? Some that you can get parts for in the future?

[swordfish1227]

sorry, forgot to mention that we are racing on thursday and we are on a bit of a tight deadline...

we may have found parts from another boat so it may become a non issue...maybe

[beaky]

Good luck with that, and congratulations on posting The Most Arcane Question Ever at SimV...

Be sure to fill us in on the race... I'm barely even a novice sailor, but find all that very interesting.

[swordfish1227]

Well, there wasn't much wind so the problem wasn't as big as it could have been... I think we are going to get a local spring manufacturer to make about 100 of these springs..that way we can't run out and we can make a profit from the other boats

We finished 6th out of about 200, including the multihulls which should be about twice as fast 4th in class. pretty good considering that we did 1 knot for about 6 hours... i wasn't happy when we couldn't pass the Elissa - an iron 3 masted ship built in 1837 - until morning.