MacGregorSailors.com

Our original sheet winches - Forespar #6 Marelon - are not working any longer. They can only be rotated with great effort and gripping them with a pipe wrench. I have had them dissassembled, cleaned and lubricated and still no success. Last year, when they were new, you could easily rotate them with your bare hand. This season something has happened: Corrosion Ageing Dust/dirt Lubricant
How can I make them work again? Have you had similar problems with Forespar#6 Marelon winches?
Hope they can be fixed, don't like to buy new winches for a new boat
Cmagnus4

What did the dealer / manufacturer offer in the way of warranty on the winches of your new boat?
Marelon is a composite material, no corrosion touted. Any signs of material wear / failure?

Dealer offered 12 months warranty on the boat (now 14 months old ). No help from them. The winches came with the boat. Forespar gives 36 months warranty. I might have to go directly to them.
cmagnus

You dont get the 36 month warranty from the winch manufacturer since you didnt buy them retail. No harm in asking. You could take them off, carry them in, and tell the dealer they failed and see if they will do it.

I would recommend you get rid of them and replace with the Lewmars - a much better piece of kit. Macgregor changed to the plastic winches a few years ago, unfortunately.

Good advice Catigale. I will probably get new Lewmars but first I'll see if I can get these to work. Some 400 grit wet sanding paper on the brasss surface might do the trick - or completely ruin them and then I'll have no choice

HELLO,
I don't get it. How can the winches be disassembled cleaned and serviced and still not work properly? What kind of "service" is that?

I have the Marelon winches and they seized on me with months of getting the boat and they have really never worked like a proper winch.

To get mine sort of work, I took them apart and sanded down the copper sleeve. They worked for a bit and then swelled to where they sort of work and now the one looks it's ready to come apart.

These winches are trash and I would only be interested in replacing them with something else as it would not be worth the time and effort to replace with like winches.

Sorry, I really hate these winches.

Jim

jschrade wrote:I have the Marelon winches and they seized on me with months of getting the boat and they have really never worked like a proper winch.

To get mine sort of work, I took them apart and sanded down the copper sleeve. They worked for a bit and then swelled to where they sort of work and now the one looks it's ready to come apart.

These winches are trash and I would only be interested in replacing them with something else as it would not be worth the time and effort to replace with like winches.

Sorry, I really hate these winches.

Jim

Yep Cheap they are I have heard of a lot of people having issues with these winches ! I heard Roger stopped using them this yr for same reason " not sure if this is true though "

J
PS When I checked them out for aft winches on my boat I said too cheap. I ended up with a great deal on #7 Lewmars winches

Hey Cmagnus4!

Mine have been tight since new. While I did not inspect them whatsoever, I found that loosening the large (stainless steel I believe) Philips-head screw (junk! ) in the centre will free them up. My winch handle wouldn't lock because it bottomed on this screw and would not enter far enough to engage the locking slot. No, wait, the winch handle wouldn't work at all (more junk! ) because the fit between them was tapered (bell mouthed, or tooooooo much clearance, again I haven't inspected these closely yet, I just want to sail) and the handle would just fly out and, if you were lucky, not knock any of your teeth out.

On a more serious note, I would say that my boat didn't really come with any winches at all. My boat came with stage props that are general representations of the shape of winches. But thanks to my participation on this forum it came as no surprise.

I've found that I really haven't had to use these winches much, but the admiral certainly will want functioning winches.

I'm confident my dealer will address the winch handle problem to my satisfaction (I'll be sure to speak up here if he doesn't) , but until then, I don't want to re-build a boat, I just want to sail!

Two replacement winches arrived today from Forespar! For free! That really exceeded my expectation.

If I went to the trouble of removing the old ones, I would replace them with lewmars and sell the replacements on eBay!

Catigale wrote:If I went to the trouble of removing the old ones, I would replace them with lewmars and sell the replacements on eBay!

That would be a Big ten Fore

J

Some of you who are struggling with these winches may benefit from going to http://www.forespar.com/products/winch-marelon.shtml and looking at the "installation tab". There is a slotted bushing that , if not lined up right will cause the center phillips screw to rotate and either come completely loose or cause the winch to overtighten and seize. I have one of these winches and struggled with this same problem-check it out. These winches work OK once you get this bushing trick down.