Insulating Mast Winch - Fair leads

[blahman]

Ian,

Thank you for the response. My Barient 16s are mounted on aluminum pads welded on by the manufacturer (LeFeil or however it's spelled) and are exactly perpendicular to the mast. My Barient 10 (stays'l hal'd) is on a pad screwed to the mast with the winch's mounting screws going through and into the mast. I was not planning to insulate this winch as its base is anodized aluminum, but please let me know if there is a reason I should.

Any thoughts on what to insulate the bronze-base winches with?

My boom's reefing winch did not have a true pad - just gobs of 5200 underneath, faired to look like a pad. I had planned to make one out of some Seaboard I have, with the winch sandwiching it to the boom with its own fasteners.

As for the fairlead, I was thinking it might be smart to have a piece of hardware (eye bolt, chock, or hook) for the halyard to run through near the winch so the lead to the winch is always the same. However, I like to pull my lines out away from the mast when not in use, so I had thought about using a stainless "hook" of some sort for this so the line doesn't have to be unrove every time I want to kill a halyard slap. I'm just not sure of the best way to mount a fair lead on aluminum without weakening the mast with big holes or something.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Juicy mangoes,
Aaron N.