Barton Winchers - are they any good?

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MGI

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Hi,
I am sailing singlehanded or with my wife and little kids and we find a lack of self-tailing winches for halyards and roller a bit difficult. Buying a new self-tailing winch is not an option due to cost so I am wandering if the Barton Winchers (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-Barton-Wincher-makes-your-winch-self-tailing-xLarge-/360129316443) are a cheap solution? Do they really work and you could winch using them? Have you got any experience with them?

Additional question would be which size should I got for my Lewmar 16 2 speed winches?

Cheers
Michal
 
Views tend to be polarised into 'yes they are great' vs 'terrible things, could never get them to work properly'. Suggest you do a search as there have been threads in the past. Personally I like them, not as good as a true self tailer but a good, cheap improvement to a standard winch. The key to their successful use it to remember to put enough turns on the winch so that the line pushes firmly on the underside of the wincher.
 
We fitted them on our original winches, Lewmar 30s, and they did help altho' not near as good as proper STers. We replaced the winches with Lewmar 40STs, mainly because we needed the power but also to get the full benefit of self tailing.

I found the only real problem with the Winchers was when releasing the sheet. It could be awkward to undo as it could bind up very tight against the underside of the Wincher.

If they are the right size I still have the Winchers available for sale. :D
New cost about £55 I think. Would take £25 inc postage - to your home address.
 
On my 24, they're fine. Not as good as self-tailers, but perfectly adequate. I only ever need to cleat of the sheets when I probably should be rolling a bit of genny away.

But this is a little boat with little winches. I've a feeling I might not be so happy with them on a 30 or 35ft boat with much bigger sheet loads. They also strike me as being a bit dear for what they are, so if I needed to replace them, I think I might be visiting a boat jumble. If you can find a sensibly priced pair at a jumble, I reckon they're worth a try.
 
They are a useful relatively low cost upgrade for a non ST winch. They do not match a proper ST winch by some margin, but that does not mean they are useless. Far from it, on a cost/benefit basis, particularly on the smaller boat they are an extremely useful bit of kit.

if you ring Barton they will tell you which wincher size will match your 16s best. They can be an absolute swine to fit at the upper margin of the winch size range.

Tim
 
I agree with the comments that say they aren't as good as self tailers but they work pretty well and are sturdy. I had them for several years on my Sadler 34 and they worked fine, even on the big genoa in windy conditions. I put them on the halliard winches too.

Re size and fitting.

The packets have sizing advice on them. So anyone who has them in stock can help you. Also when I bought them I found a website with the sizing information, but sorry I can't remember where.

They have to fit tight so as not to slip, so I found that soaking them in really hot water to get them stretchy and using soap as lubricant helped them onto the winches. Once on, they stuck which of course is what they should do.
 
Another possitive here! I put them on my genoa winches and they work great! they dont tail so you have to ensure the free end feeds off but they are very usefull and self cleat. A good investment. Check out the website or the chandlers because various sizes are available.
 
Agree not as good as ST but I find them really good on my sadler 34. They went on really easily after knowing how. Good luck
 
Well I use them on my Moody 36 and whilst I agree they are not quite the same as proper self tailing winches, I did six of the seven winches on my boat for a heck of a lot less than relacing the genoa winches, never mind the rest. They make most of my sail hgandling simple even single handed
 
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