Does anyone know the purpose of these winches? The boat is a Sweden Yacht 41 and has a removable cutter sail. We have 14 winches and I don’t think the forward ones have every been used.
I occasionally sail a similar sized boat with a pair of similar winches either side and with a full racing crew it's nice to have winches for every purpose. One of the pair is usually used for the staysail sheets and the other for halyards (with one crew member sweating it at the mast and another tailing the winch then putting on the the final couple of turns - all to save a second or two.
Thanks, since I don't use a spinnaker a lot, or race ever I wonder if I would be better off without them. 14 winches seems a lot for a cruising boat. Most lines run aft to the cockpit anyway. I will be replacing the deck next year so less holes may be a good idea (I replaced the deck in the cockpit area this year).
I think they are 40s. One is currently jammed from lack of use (I only got the boat last year). We have serviced all the others and they work great now. I was thinking of removing them next year when I re-lay the teak but if I do I will probably hold onto them in case I change my mind, sorry.
Friend of mine used to have a Sweden 38 which we raced 2 handed quite a bit. If it's the same the one on port side of mast was for the spinnaker halyard. He didn't have one on stbd side