floating winch handles - any good

dylanwinter

dylanwinter

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www.keepturningleft.co.uk
I threw my winch handle over the side into the Humber mud

I have contributed many over the years - mostly along the east coast

how long will it last?

will it become a fossil?

I assume more humber mud will be laid over it and it will not have the benefit of oxygen

I wonder if in a few hundred thousand or even millions of years from now some green skinned archaeologist will dig it up and wonder what it was for.

but the practical side

should I buy one of these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-SEAWO...tEquipment_Accessories_SM&hash=item3378bf96c5

or one of these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Allen-8-N...tEquipment_Accessories_SM&hash=item257975d62b
 
I've never felt the need for a floating winch handle, on the grounds that if I accidentally toss it overboard at five knots the odds of getting back to it and being able to retrieve it are slim. How do you pick up a winch handle with a boathook?

Pete
 
seldom sail at five knots

For £16 I am more than willing to turn around and pick it up

no need for a boat hook recovery system

one of tghe advantages of a small boat is that I can reach the water just by leaning over the side
 
Floating winch handles have no 'heft' to them so they feel a bit wimpy in action. If you don't need heft and are prepared to go back and pick up the floating winch handle it's a reasonable choice. Personally I'd have a lock-in handle. The floating ones look a bit a like a toy - "my first winch handle".
 
dylanwinter said:
one of tghe advantages of a small boat is that I can reach the water just by leaning over the side
Click to expand...

Surely a small boat doesn't need winch handles anyway? :) Never used 'em on ours. Been interesting coming back to all this big-boat stuff in the last couple of months :D

Pete
 
I was on my first ever 2 day single handed excursion recently. I motored out of the bay where i had moored overnight, raised the main, raised the Jib - and dropped my floating winch handle.
calm water light breeze, but how to retrieve? I cant reach the surface over the side of the cockpit, but i have a gate in my transom and still had motor running.
Did classic gybe around came up alongside the MOB(sorry winch handle) and a little further then used motor to reverse back onto it so that i could kneel and reach it through the transom gate. Success! Stood up to find a tourist boat standing by to see why this yacht was reversing with all sails standing and no one in sight. (Kneeling down i was hidden from view)
Morals.
Floating winch handles work. I have used this one at limit of my strength and i am not a 97 lb weakling! It just saved its purchase price too.
Transom gates are really good. Why dont more boats have them?
Why didnt i use my fish landing net, my wife asked when i relayed the story? Answer It simply didnt occur to me.
Finally, based on experience i had previously believed all tourist boat drivers to be the spawn of unsanctified unions. I choose to believe that this driver was making sure i didnt need help and not that he was giving his passengers a good laugh.
Good luck
 
dylanwinter said:
should I buy one of these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-SEAWO...tEquipment_Accessories_SM&hash=item3378bf96c5

or one of these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Allen-8-N...tEquipment_Accessories_SM&hash=item257975d62b
Click to expand...

I bought two Barton Floating Winch handles Ref: 21033 and 21034 about 2 years ago, see here http://www.bartonmarine.com/products-winches-handles-and-accessories.asp

They can be bought here http://www.mailspeedmarine.com/sear...r=&keyword=floating+winch+Handle&brand=&leaf=
and other chandleries for about £23 each. They work well and if one goes over the side I have a chance to get it back, if I fail then at least someone else might find it and use it.
 
none on the slug

prv said:
Surely a small boat doesn't need winch handles anyway? :) Never used 'em on ours. Been interesting coming back to all this big-boat stuff in the last couple of months :D

Pete
Click to expand...

the slug was snas winch handles

Katie L has one winch - just for the halyards - throat and gaff

hard to get that last bit of tension in the luff without it

and they do look a bit tonka toyish

but the ugliness will prompt me to remove it rather than leave it in the winch where it can get knocked over the side

Dylan
 
I bought a Titan Locking Floating Winch Handle (Made in Australia) many years ago. Tough as old boots. Luckily never dropped overboard but I bought a floating handle for my winches just in case. Many moons ago a crew member launched my boom reffing handle off Cowes and I had to have a new one made up - reckon floating is worth it as it gives you a chance of recovery. (I too can reach the water as I go past).
 
A few years back PBO ran a test on winch handles and the floating ones were at a definite disadvantage at delivering any grunt. I can see how they have a purpose on a boat with low freeboard and a size which makes the use of a winch marginal, though. Incidentally there was also one model from a well known supplier which could not be used on two speed winches as the handle unscrewed when wound "backwards" - which would leave the winch unuseable as well, with the spigot locked into the top.

I always assume that anything that goes over the side is probably lost, floating or not. So far, several hats, a mobile phone and a sail batten.

Rob.
Rob.
 
Salty John said:
Floating winch handles have no 'heft' to them so they feel a bit wimpy in action. If you don't need heft and are prepared to go back and pick up the floating winch handle it's a reasonable choice. Personally I'd have a lock-in handle. The floating ones look a bit a like a toy - "my first winch handle".
Click to expand...

The Barton one does have a "lock-in handle", and we have failed to break them yet, so I don't care to much what they looks like. I hope we all have a better season this year, so that we can use our winch handles more than last year. George.
 
They are brilliant and ideal for MOB drills. After a morning doing MOB drills with the usual fender and bucket contraption we were about to head off for a spot of lunch and a floating winch handle decided it wanted a swim; we recovered it on our third pass.
 
I had a floating winch handle once. It didn't fill me with confidence in use - I could feel it flexing slightly. When it inevitably went over the side it did float - but we didn't rescue it.
Would I buy another - no.
 
My favourite carbon effect frames Gill sunglasses too a dive last year , they floated as they should , could I find them ????, Nope , the black legs stuck up out the water rendering them invisible from two boatlengths , hit mob immediately , but by the time I got back not a chance , still some lucky person prob has them now after washing up a shore .



Whilst racing once our foredeck hand lost a shoe over the side , realising as racing the aftergaurd where no way going back for it ,hurled the other over the side to join it in a fit of rage , was more than mildly amusing next day heading out to next race we passed the first shoe still floating :)
 
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I have picked up a floating winch handle whilst club racing a quarter tonner - quick gybe and round to it, didn't even drop a place in the race. I now use them for preference on a newish AWB mainly because a bang from a hefty solid winch handle can easily chip gelcoat, whilst the light floating handles are much more forgiving.
 
I've used a couple of Barton floating winch handles (which look identical to the OP's ebay link) for years and they are great and as can be seen from the pic, it has the locking mechanism. We use it on the mast winch now as a couple of swanky Lewmar ones came with the current boat which we use on the genny winches. As mentioned above, they're great as they don't chip the deck if you drop them. Al Maybe I'm a total wimp but I've never found them to be less effective than the metal ones when cruising. As to those that have difficulty in finding one after it falls overboard, I just hope that they never have a real MoB!!!

Get one, even if it is just a spare to try as I'm sure for normal sailing (unless you're a buoy racer :) ) you won't notice the difference except you won't lose it.
 
I have a floating winch handle - which I acquired after my son spotted it floating past one day...

Obviously you pick it up using a bucket.

It's a Titan, much stronger than it looks, and works well on a 28ft boat. It's also lighter than the Lewmar metal ones should you be careless enough to drop it on your foot (or someone else's)...

.
 
excellent

Lodesman77 said:
I have a floating winch handle - which I acquired after my son spotted it floating past one day...

Obviously you pick it up using a bucket.

It's a Titan, much stronger than it looks, and works well on a 28ft boat. It's also lighter than the Lewmar metal ones should you be careless enough to drop it on your foot (or someone else's)...

.
Click to expand...

clean bill of health for the floaters then

I did get an offer of a swap of a handle for a dvd

but when I throw that overboard I shall buy a plastic one

it is only for the halyard

D
 
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