The picture above shows the setup I’ve used to experiment with the worm gear winches that I found on the web. They are through bolted to the bulkhead and are mounted to a one inch thick oak spacer block. I think they’ll make a neat and tidy way to handle the bilge boards. As supplied the winches have cable exit guides on the tops only. I’ve modified these ones so the line exits through a slot I cut in the bottom of each case.
The one on the left is equipped with 3/16 inch spectra line. The one on the right has 1/8 inch steel cable. As the photo shows the left winch has a straight drop while the other angles outboard somewhat.
My experiments have shown that the extra bulk of the spectra line creates two problems. First, it’s hard to get enough of the line on the winch drum to satisfy my need for several wraps remaining on the drum when the boards are fully down. Second, while the winch on the left worked fine with spectra, the one on the right did not. It was very difficult to lower and would “chatter” badly while lowering the plate. Once I switched to the steel cable (which is what the winches were designed to use) it worked flawlessly.
The other picture shows how I’ve rigged the cable entry into the bilge board cases. I’ve used a regular bronze through hull fitting and capped it with an ordinary garden hose fitting which will have a short length of plastic hose added to it to keep any splashing water out of the cabin.