Sailing Plutovideo
S3 EP47 | Lockdown diaries | servicing winches and sail car fix | Sailing Pluto
25 July 2020 · 9 min · 349 views · Cape Town
What this video covers
The crew of Pluto performs maintenance on the vessel’s mast-mounted halyard winches and mainsail track system while docked in Saldanha Bay. Morgan from Women's Sails Cape Town replaces the existing batten slides with 22mm slides to reduce friction within the mast track, allowing the mainsail to be hoisted and lowered without winch assistance.2:35 The crew disassembles the mast winches to clean and re-grease the internal gears, noting significant corrosion between the bronze winch bases and the aluminum mast.4:06 To mitigate further galvanic corrosion, they install acrylic gaskets between the winch bases and the mast surface.6:00 The winch service requires careful organization of internal components, specifically distinguishing between planetary and central gear washers to ensure correct reassembly.4:33 The project aims to improve sail handling efficiency for short-handed sailing and reefing.3:23 Outside of maintenance tasks, the crew spends time hiking in the local area as lockdown restrictions ease.7:54 Replacing high-friction batten slides and insulating bronze hardware from aluminum surfaces significantly improves sail operation and reduces long-term corrosion.
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