Pontos 4 speed trimmer winches

TQA

TQA

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20 Feb 2005
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Carribbean currently Grenada
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I am considering fitting a pair of these as primaries on my 44 ft cuitter with an overlapping genny. As I get creakier it is hard to get the last foot or two in and my lightweight equally aged crew can't get he last 5 feet in. So far I have only seen positive reviews.

Has anyone heard of any negatives other than the need for regular servicing.
 
I do wonder if, as their low gear is SO low,whether there is a risk of damaging a sail if used carelessly, or by an inexperienced crew? Maybe I will ask them at SIBS tomorrow. PS I have no evidence for this, just a thought.
 
I would have a chat to Pontos as to whether you are better off fitting "Trimmer" or "Grinder" winches for your purposes, I think most people go with "Grinder's" for trimming on a genoa working on the basis that because you can trim the sheet on much more quickly you can get it in before it has loaded up.

The other thing that I really noticed after installing Grinders this year was that the lowest of the 4 gears is quite a bit lower than that of the 2 speed harkens that they replaced - a big part of this is probably the drum diameter of the pontos winches is quite a bit bigger than the equivalent size from the other manufacturers - this also means you need to check that they will fit as I think the base diameter of the pontos winches was a good centimeter bigger than that of the harkens they replaced.
 
Having looked at these winches at the boat show and I was very impressed. TQA, these would be an ideal choice as the test winches were smaller than I expected and the speed/power of that drum was amazing. I did try both winches and the Grinder would be my choice, however the Trimmer has an extremely power high ratio, from memory 143:1, and heavy loads were easy to wind to the extent you could easily over tension a rope but very unlikely to do as you can hear the tension coming from the rope. Having recently fitted up graded winches to my boat, it was a shame these were not available when I did as I would have chosen them.
 
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