Frank Scalfano wrote:The reason I brought this up, besides the comment I mentioned on an old post, is the annoying experience I had on another, smaller, much less blue-water boat, in which all the winches, no doubt all standard factory issue, worked flawlessly with any number of wraps with no overrides. On that boat the winches are bolted directly onto the fiberglass. I don't know if the brackets on the W32 were designed with a specific angle in mind, or if the teak pads on mine on which the winches sit are intended to give the optimal angle. Why were the brackets not designed with this in mind, if they were not? Were the brackets (stainless) never intended to directly contact the winches(bronze)? 

The winch pads were not designed with any angle on them.  Unfortunately, most of the winch pads were installed parallel to the caprail, and since the caprail rises at that point, the line should be lead in from aft instead of forward.  Cheek blocks were sometimes installed on the caprail aft of the winch, and the jib sheets go through the track block, back through the cheek block, and forward to the winch.  In that way, the angle would be correct, and the line not override.  If the jib sheet comes from the track block directly to the winch, it will override, unless a wedge is installed between the winch and the bracket, or the brackets are remounted tilted aft.