Electric Winches

[chrisgee]

I`m getting tired of hoisting our 5 batten heavy main and thinking of prolonging our life afloat by fitting an electric winch Lewmar 46 to replace the manual ST40 we have now.

Could I have some feedback from forumites who have fitted one please?
Many thanks.

 

[Norman_E]

Why go up to a size 46? My boat has a size 40 Harken electric winch which has far more power than you would ever need. If your boat was designed with a manual 40 winch, an electric 40 winch will do all you need, just be careful that when you use it for the main halyard, don't let it pull for too long, or you will break something. I also have a heavy fully battened main, and no external mast track to reduce friction. I find it best to use the power to get the mainsail up almost to the top, but do the final tensioning with the winch handle, i.e. manually.

 

[dt4134]

I've one. I didn't fit it, it came with the boat.

I'm starting to get over the nervousness of having an inexperienced crew rip the sail, but I do generally tend to press the buttons myself if there's not a well experienced crew on board.

Had only one outage which nearly caused a mutiny amongst the spoilt crew (racers too so should be used to hard work). It turned out to be a loose connection.

What I do plan to do is fit a 2:1 main halyard to make it easier to haul the sail up by hand as a back-up if the winch fails. I've crewed on a bigger boat (nearly 60') that had that arrangement.

And beware of leaving a winch handle in the winch. When you press the button it ejects the winch handle with some force. I think it's meant to be a safety feature, but it's pretty dangerous to toes, gel coat or anything else that gets it the way.

 

[chrisgee]

Why go up to a size 46? My boat has a size 40 Harken electric winch which has far more power than you would ever need. If your boat was designed with a manual 40 winch, an electric 40 winch will do all you need, just be careful that when you use it for the main halyard, don't let it pull for too long, or you will break something. I also have a heavy fully battened main, and no external mast track to reduce friction. I find it best to use the power to get the mainsail up almost to the top, but do the final tensioning with the winch handle, i.e. manually.

Thanks for all replies-- the reason I was tempted to go for the 46 was that there is an offer on which makes the 46 the same price as the 40 ! I`ve noted your comment re not winching to the top,which was also mentioned in another reply , sounds like sense although I believe you can get a controller which senses the tension on the hoist , is that correct?

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

I believe you can get a controller which senses the tension on the hoist , is that correct?

Would be nice if you could, but I haven't seen one. These things are very powerful. We managed to accidentally rip a mounted sheeve out of the mast, rivets and all with one!

 

[geoid96]

Thanks for all replies-- the reason I was tempted to go for the 46 was that there is an offer on which makes the 46 the same price as the 40 ! ..........

One big advantage of the 40's is that you should be able to upgrade your existing winches at a much lower cost.

http://www.seateach.com/ElectricWinch.asp

You also need to consider whether the battery capacity needs increasing to handle the extra load.

 

[alan]

In response to Chrisgee; from the Lewmar website:

"ELS Electric load sensing 55ST 111ST
The ELS (Electric Load Sensing) Electric Winches are controlled by an Overload Protection Control Box, this allows the winch to be operated up to a high load, equivalent to the SWL (Safe Working Load) of each winch size. When this load is reached the winch automatically cuts out. If the load is reduced the winch load can be increased back up to this cut out level. Safety Overload Cut Out function was pioneered by Lewmar, and is a unique Lewmar feature. A Motor Thermal trip is connected as an extra safety feature to ensure a motor cut out, if the heat builds up to an unacceptable level.
With Lewmar electric winches, the sheet is recovered rapidly at low load when sheets are slacker, and slows down as load increases. This provides speed when you need it most, and control as you tune your sails to perfection. Manual operation facility is available as back up or to experience traditional sailing. Two + One speed comes as the standard control. It gives two-speed Manual drive (through use of the winch handle) + one-speed Electric Drive. Available on Lewmar winch sizes 55ST to 77ST. In addition Two +Two or three speed is available on Lewmar 68ST to 111ST."

I do not have an electric winch and to be honest have never even used one, but the information from the Lewmar website about the Controller does not lead me to believe that it will perform the function that you mention; it seems to be a speed control and safety cut-out; I'm not sure the safety cut-out will be enough to save your sail/halyard/hardware.

Alan.

 

[rudolph_hart]

MY 35 footer has 2x Harken 42 electrics that came with the boat. Previous boats didn't have 'em, so I'd never used them before. They really do make a heck of a difference in terms of sail hoisting and control. Main hoist (P measurement) is 44 feet, sail is heavy dacron with 5x full-length battens (albeit with batten cars).

Main hoisting: I do the heavy work -pressing the button - while SWMBO tails (yes, I know it's a self tailer). You can hear when the winch is loading up (i.e. almost there) and I stop when I'm happy with the look of the luff tension, so no need to finish manually.

Having said that, if you're not careful they are so powerful they will break stuff - in my case, they ripped the end fitting out of a rigid boom vang

Batteries: boat has 2x 135 a/hr, and we always have engine running when hoisting main. However, the winches are used for all the 'white' sails' halyards,sheets,reefs,furls etc, plus these batteries also power windlass & fridge compressor. So if you're planning to use it only/mainly for the main halyard, you may be OK with existing battery setup.

I hope this is useful.

 

[Monique]

I have a pair of large electrics(56's). I would take advantage of the 46 vs 40 purchase price.

That said, a good briefing to the troops: "Finish the hoisting via winch" as mentioned before.

GL