Homemade windsurfing downhaul winch

Windsurfing downhaul winch

Downhauling large windsurf sails takes a lot of effort if you use the sit on the floor, foot on the mast base and pull method. I'd seen downhaul winches for sale online at what seemed like quite a lot of money so decided to build my own from scrap I had lying around.

The first thing was to get a Europin to fit into my mast bases. I had an old UJ which I would never use as it is pretty ancient and doesn't have a safety strap. So I scrapped it to get the Europin off. This also yielded a very nice stainless steel washer.

Once I had the Europin, I found a metric bolt that would fit it (M8 x 1.25 I believe) and welded that to a thickish washer of 30mm diameter.

I then found a piece of strong tube with outside diameter 30mm and 25mm inside. None of these measurements are critical, you could use a slighter smaller or larger tube. I cut a 250mm length off and welded the bolt/washer part to it.

Then I screwed on the Europin and the nice thick stainless washer from the old UJ.

The next job was to drill a hole through the side of the tube. My handle was going to be made from 12mm mild steel rod, so I drilled a 12.5mm hole.

I cut a piece of 12mm rod and marked with chalk where I thought the bends should go.

Then I heated the rod.

And bent it to shape

At this point I realised I had made the handle too big and that it would foul on the sail during use. Rather than start all over again, I just cut a piece out of the centre section of the handle and welded it back together.

I found two washers with 12mm holes in them and welded them onto the handle either side of the pipe.

The final metalwork job was to drill a small 6mm hole through the rod so that the downhaul line can be fed through to hold it in place. I was very careful to get rid of any sharp edges around the hole as I don't want to be buying any more downhaul lines than I already do.

I gave the winch a good clean up with a wire brush and a quick coat of silver paint to tidy it up.

It works well and I find it is easier to tune sails more accurately using it. It also saves a lot of effort.

• Total build time - 45 minutes
• Material cost - nothing
• Tools used - hacksaw, mig welder, grinder, drill, large blowlamp, hammer.

I enjoyed this project. Always nice to be doing something windsurfing related.

Mistral Equipe and One Design Mast Track Pedal Replacement

Mistral windsurfer mast track pedal repair

If you've got a Mistral Equipe or One Design windsurfing board, chances are at some point you will have a broken foot pedal. Without this, the mast base can't slide in the track while you are on the move. A search of the web will reveal that these parts are no longer available. A windsurfing buddy of mine even contacted Mistral by email and was told that the moulds had been destroyed and that they recommended cannibalising old boards to get the parts. However, all of the pedals fail in the same way so this isn't really an option.

Mistral Equipe Race Board

When my Mistral's pedal broke in 2016, I decided to make a replacement myself. I ordered a piece of nylon from eBay for £5.29. This was 10mm thick and 200m x 100mm in size which is plenty for a few foot pedals.

First I marked out the pedal on the material using my old broken one. This was easy enough to remove by carefully driving out the small pin that holds it onto the mast track.

Then I cut this piece out using a normal hacksaw.

Before going any further, I measured the size of the pin (3mm) and drilled a hole right through the material.

Having done this, I cut out the rest of the pedal using a combination of hacksaw, file and coping saw and some angle grinding too. This nylon is quite hard stuff to work with compared to other materials.

In the centre of the recess there has to be a small piece which is hard to recreate by hand. So instead on this pedal (the prototype) I cheated and used a small self-tapping screw. This is an important part as it is this which presses on the other part of the mechanism to release the mast track. The advantage of using a screw is that you can pack it with washers to get the clearance how you want it.

I test fitted the pedal on the board and adjusted as required to get it fitting well.

The next step was to make the red pedal retaining clip fit. 

This requires a groove to be cut so the the red clip will click into place. I cut this using a series of hacksaw cuts and a narrow wood chisel. Once it all fitted nicely I refitted the two parts to the mast track and it works as it should.

Since I made this first pedal, I have been asked to make some more for other Mistral windsurfing guys. I cut one more out by hand and on this occasion did not use a self-tapping screw as I managed to cut the shape out more accurately based on my previous experience. 

I have also cast two experimental glass reinforced epoxy pedals in plasticine moulds. If these prove to be successful I will add some more info to this page showing their construction in detail.

Left 2 - epoxy castings, original broken Mistral pedal, hand cut pedal made from nylon