Mast mounted winch grinder

[gbr6332]

Hi,
Toying around with an idea for a vertically mounted winch handle system that will operate on our boats spini/code 0 halyard winch. If you imagine the normal 'classic' winch handle, and at the top above the handle place a double length winch handle in the opposite direction. I am aiming for a 'grinding' pedestal design with the winch on the outside of the boat. Good idea or am I just being a moron?
Ollie

 

[Birdseye]

Not clear from your description exactly what you mean. I assume the halyard winch you refer to is mounted old style on the side of the mast. Correct? And from your description, it sounds like you mean a winch handle that has been modified so that opposite the original handle is a new handle twice as long. Or are you talking of the =old style winch with a captive handle?

Either way its a puzzle why you need / want some sort of grinder. Is the current winch badly underpowered?

 

[bbg]

I think I understand what you mean, but I think the forces involved would make the structure impractical. Coffee-grinder pedestals are useful for getting two people to work at the same time, or for linking up several pedestals together.

I suspect you just want to be able to get both arms working on the winch. In that case, special winch handles are available. Either with a button on top or a double-length handle. Get the longest one you can, and you will feel the difference.

http://www.harken.com/productdetail.aspx?id=13212&taxid=1607

Edit - I see you want this for spin / code 0 halyard. Those are two very different needs. Spin halyard should go up quickly and not really need a winch (unless there is a mess-up). It should get to the top of the mast by hand then locked off in a clutch.

Code 0 will also (depending on the size of the boat) get a long way up by hand, but then needs to be really tight. Maybe this is what you need it for?

In either case the sails should be hoisted without any load, so the winch is really for the last little bit (or sometimes a few feet if you didn't get the kite all the way up before it filled). I suspect the double-length winch handle will give you what you need.

 

[Adamastor]

I sort of understand you to mean something like the Harken Access Winch?
They launched this a few years ago: http://www.harkenindustrial.com/wp-content/uploads/AW-Two-handles.jpg

 

[Woodlouse]

You've had the same idea I had a few weeks ago. Basically a kind of crank shaft shaped winch handle that would let you flail your arms about as if using a pedestal but on a mast mounted winch.

In my mind the largest drawback would be slack in the socket on the winch. A bit of wobble would probably make it difficult to carry out a fast grind.

It would also be a bugger to store.

 

[bbg]

Which is why Harken and possibly others make a two-handed winch handle. That is, I think, the closest thing the OP will get to what he wants.

 

[sarabande]

a double-cranked handle will bash your arms every 180 degrees, as you will need to keep your lower arm exactly at 90 degs to the hand hold, and you will have to reach through the crank about 20 inches (double the normal winch handle distance). Nice idea, but non-runner, I respeckfully suggest.

 

[lw395]

With one person operating a coffee grinder, there is a problem that you generate lots of torque at two points in the circle and much less at two other points, this is balanced when you've got two gorillas facing each other. To get over this involves moving your body a lot, you can do that in the cockpit of a maxi, not so easy on the foredeck of a small yacht.
Using a normal winch properly it's not just your arms, it's your back etc, so there is no way you can get twice the power by using the other arm the opposite way.

 

[Woodlouse]

a double-cranked handle will bash your arms every 180 degrees, as you will need to keep your lower arm exactly at 90 degs to the hand hold, and you will have to reach through the crank about 20 inches (double the normal winch handle distance). Nice idea, but non-runner, I respeckfully suggest.

Back in the 80s the 12 metres had cranked grinding pedestal bars running across the cockpits. The trick is not to have the angles all at 90 degrees so you have more elbow room.