Of the aircraft used on the DHFS contract at RAF Shawbury, IIRC we did not operate with both floats & winch fitted. Although those aircraft are BB and not B3, I would assume the physical hardware is the same.
On the left hand skid tube, we had a hard plastic block fitted to prevent damage to the METAL tube, so my assumption would be that the cable would do exactly the same to a float bag. The floats fitted are single piece Aerazure units.