Lewmar switch for electric winch failure

[Utahsailor]

Ou boat is now 10 years old and equipment is beginning to wear out. The switches for Lewmar 65 electric winches are the latest but their failure mode can be dangerous: When they fail the winch turns ON and could injure a person or damage equipment. As an engineer, this is a bad failure mode- much better to have switch become unresponsive- you can still winch by hand. Imagine if you were hoisted aloft and the winch started, jammed the halyard into the masthead, it breaks and you fall.

The rubber switch covers slightly cracked due to UV exposure and water entered and damaged the switch. The replacement switch says to replace every 3-5 years, now I agree but didn't know before.