So one of my main winches was installed the wrong way by Beneteau (some say Beneteau will always install that winch the wrong way - most likely in preparation for upgrading to a motor winch .... Really that would be the only acceptable excuse !)

If the winch is installed backwards , you can not remove the gears for cleaning - possibly creating a real safety hazard over the years.

I have tried to remove that winch platform a couple of times - but as they used silicon or 5200 it would never butch ..
This year I had the rigging guy looking at it - he took the hammer with some wood to it to the point where I had to stop him - Let's google this - They say constant pressure will release 5200 ... so we put a mooring line to another winch last night and tightened it against the winch body .. the rigging guy though this will never work but still cautioned me to put to protection against the boat - just in case the base would be flying off .

Guess what - I showed up on the boat this morning and the base of the winch indeed was laying on the seats in the cockpit :-)