I am thinking about renewing the winches on the cabin top of Shivra no 32. Problem is that with the headlining I can't get access to the underside of the winch platform where presumably the nuts for the bolts which secure the winch base are located. Would welcome any advice from anyone who has replaced the winches as to how they did the job. It could be that the nuts are glassed in any comments appreciated. Stewart

Hello Stewart
When I replaced my winches I found that the nuts to the screws were glassed in to a grey resin like material - which was quite brittle and crumbled easily. It would have been possible to simply unscrew the old winch and screw the new ones straight back on as there was a good chance of the nuts being retained.

The deck is about 6mm thick at this point and there was not any sign of backing plates! It is a top class bit of grip moulding!
My headlining is about half a mm thick and I bolted in two small round barton hatches to access below the winch.

(My headlining may be different to yours on Shivra. I cut into the headlining using a pair of dividers to scribe the circle and scratch through... but it was still a struggle to access the nuts as there is not much clearance between the headlining and the deck at this point.)

I used Antal winches, having exactly the same footprint as the original Encks? No10 and replaced with self tailing No16s, a single speed to the port side and a two speed to the starboard, where my Keel is winched to.

I can send photos if that helps, may need a current email from you. . My details are in the handbook
Best Wishes

Lindsey Moscrop P21 Amy No75

Many thanks for this Lindsey glad to see that someone has done the job successfully if you could send some photos that would be a great help. stewart.gibbons@outlook.com.

My winches are Lewmar 7s so not sure if I can get some with the same deck fitting, headlining like yous but maybe a little thicker at 1mm
Regards