Just a word or two that may save you alot of grief if you are planning on installing a cabintop winch and you have a dodger. BE SURE and set the dodger up when laying out the cockpit winch, rope clutch and deck organizer BEFORE you even bring a drill aboard the boat. Its something you could easily forget to do. Lucky for me I didn't forget. Its important especially on the smaller Cape Dories where the width of the cabintop is not great. I found that there was only one spot on the cabin top where I could install the winch which would allow me to turn a winch handle (even a small 8" handle) completely around without being obstructed by the dodger. Even with that the back of my hand that's cranking the winch handle just grazes the fabric. Because that position is dictated by the dodger that means all the other hardware positions are dictated by the winch position if you are going to have the lines run fair from the mast, through the organizer and clutch back to the winch. You can also see if the dodger will get in the way of you opening and closing the handles on the rope clutches. It also lets you see if the dodger will interfere with the lines coming under it from up forward. So make sure you deploy that dodger when designing your hardware layout!
Warren Kaplan
Sine Qua Non
CD27
Oyster Bay Harbor, NY
Setsail728@aol.com
Cabin Top Winch and Dodger
Moderator: Jim Walsh