Fitting new halyard winches

[Talmine]

I'm fitting new halyard winches to my mast and have purchased a pair of zspar mast brackets to fit them to. My original thought was to rivet the brackets to the mast
But past experience with monel rivets reminds me that my rivet gun and hand strength are no match for monel. There are 8 fixings per bracket!!
Any experience and advice would be appreciated

 

[geem]

A good long handle river gun works for me on rivets up to 6mm

 

[PetiteFleur]

I've used a Lazy Tongs Riveter with success when using monel rivets. A bit violent when they go 'pop' !

 

[Talmine]

I guess its all a bit give it a go. I have used a lazy tongs in the past but the jaws broke after a few rivets. Perhaps I didn't spend enough. Now I think about it I borrowed them. I'll have a look at long handle but I guess the weak spot will be the jaws where they grip the centre pin

 

[William_H]

Long ago I got a pneumatic rivet gun. Really powerful not so expensive and easy. Just needs a compressor to go with it. Mean while no help at all but I would go for halyards back to cockpit cabin top winches. ol'will

 

[Stemar]

Mean while no help at all but I would go for halyards back to cockpit cabin top winches.

That though occurred to me as well. When I did it on my old boat, I used the mast mounting to fit the winch (small boat, so only one) under the sprayhood, which gave perfect alignment.

 

[ashtead]

Why are you refitting to mast -surely a block at mast plus a winch in cockpit might be worth investigating?

 

[Talmine]

Why are you refitting to mast -surely a block at mast plus a winch in cockpit might be worth investigating?

Thanks all for your comments and ideas. With regard to bringing the halyard back to a winch on the coachroof our boat is 43 years old of traditional design and I like the winches at the mast. It's easier for me to sort out any problems if I'm at the mast for raising or reefing the main but as the original winches were in need of refurbishment I've taken the opportunity to put bigger ones on to compensate for my aging muscles.

 

[Poignard]

I am quite happy having my halyard winches on the mast.

It is only a 2 metre walk from the cockpit to the mast and, despite being an octogenarian, I don't find it taxes my strength too much.