Standard winches

[dgadee]

Just upgrading to self tailers and notice that there are still a lot of (reasonably expensive) standard winches for sale at chandlers. Who uses these?

 

[Stemar]

People who can't afford self-tailers?

A plain winch plus a wincher (Barton Wincher a stupid price for what it is) isn't as good as a proper self-tailer, but it's an acceptable compromise for the hard up or just hard of spending

 

[dgadee]

Just looked. Two speed 16 standard Lewmar winches are listed at £450 each at Pirates Cave (there are offers around at less). Single speed 16st ones aren't so much more expensive.

So not so sure it is just hard up.

 

[doug748]

People who can't afford self-tailers?

'''''

Yes, I'm not so fussed about self tailing winches on a small boat. It would have cost me two grand, I fitted two new old stock Lewmar 43's for a bit over £400.

.

 

[johnalison]

I reckon that self-tailers are the equivalent to an extra half crew-member, maybe more, as is an autopilot.

 

[thinwater]

I have both. There are good reasons.

• Standard winches are faster to tack or jibe. No stripper in the way when spinning turns on or off.
• On smaller boats one person can easily tail and grind. Grinding is not a two-handed job.
• It is simple to secure the tail with a cam cleat on the bulkhead below the winch.
• There are applications where the tail should NOT be placed in the selftailer. A chute or reacher on a tender powered-up boat is a good example; the tail should be held or in a cam cleat, ready for instant release.
• As for singlehanding, I do it all the time. The pilot steers and I can easily trim, selftailing or no. To tack I use auto-tack. I have selftailors on the jib, but on my F-24 I could go either way (easier for trimming but slower for tacking). On my cruising cat selftailers have the edge, but I still use cam cleats when it's blowing hard and gusty.
• They are more snag-prone, on masts, for example. A standard winch is cleaner.

It depends. It's not always money. They are very nice when needed.

 

[vyv_cox]

I won't have any cleats in the cockpit. Years ago we had non-ST winches and cleats on the cockpit sides. Just off the Sandettie lightship, a notoriously lumpy stretch of water, Jill fell onto a cleat and broke a rib. We switched to ST almost immediately.

 

[geem]

Our boat was built in the era of none ST winches. The boat has 11 winches. I upgraded lots to ST. Genoa winches, spinnaker winches, genoa halyard, mizzen and main halyards but not the spinnaker halyard, mainsail reefing winch or mizzen staysail winch. These 3 winches are better as none ST winches.

 

[thinwater]

I won't have any cleats in the cockpit. Years ago we had non-ST winches and cleats on the cockpit sides. Just off the Sandettie lightship, a notoriously lumpy stretch of water, Jill fell onto a cleat and broke a rib. We switched to ST almost immediately.

Placement is key. All of mine are in places that would be very hard to fall against. Not seat backs, for example. This one is below the seat.

I'm always amazed at the new boats that have sharp-cornered cabinetry in the cabin.

 

[PetiteFleur]

I've upgraded all my original winches to Anderson st, the largest pair 46st for the genoa, oversized but just needed stripping and cleaned as they came from a sunken boat, the smaller ones fron a local boat sale and ebay. We'll pleased with them.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I reckon that self-tailers are the equivalent to an extra half crew-member, maybe more, as is an autopilot.

I reckon self tailing winches make it possible for me to manage single handed. Fortunately, Capricious was equipped with them when I bought her!