Looking back over the various posts I noticed that I talked about a “special” new block coming from Lewmar in September. Well, It’s February and I still have a gimpy jury rig on the outhaul.
Fortunately I have what every boat owner should dream of – a family friend with a machine shop. This friend has bailed me out more than a couple of times before, including machining a new wheel post and drum for my old Beneteau 40.7 when the wheel fell off while France was closed for August, and reaming out and cleaning up the threads for the zinc screw on my Gori prop that I carefully snapped off clean.
So I brought my busted-ass block and my two-of-a-kind left in the world sheaves over to my friends shop. We pressed. We pressed more. Then we had to heat it, drill it, press it, drill it again and press it some more. Finally the remains of the pin came out of the block. There is NO WAY that Lewmar ever intended this thing to come apart in the hands of a casual user.
So – the obvious questions…
1) Why did Lewmar not want this pin to be removable
2) If their engineers are so set on that pin never, ever coming out of the block – why sell me a sheave that I can not install? Well, that one’s obvious.
By destroying the pin we were able to remove it. Fortunately, being in a machine shop we could handily make up a new pin to fit. In fact we made two, since I do have two of these broken blocks awaiting repair.
Some day my new bionic turbo super strong block will arrive from Lewmar, I know it. I’ve always counted my friend with the lathes and presses high on my list of assets…but he’s moved up even higher. Fortunately for me he breaks his computers from time to time and I can bail HIM out.
