lustyd
Well-Known Member
Whether the maths is right or wrong, a longer lever doesn't give you more power.
Why don't they make longer winch handles ?
- Thread starter blackdogsailing
- Start date
penfold
Well-Known Member
It does allow you to apply it more effectively; 25% less force from your arm or 25% greater sheet tension, take your pick.
mjcoon
Well-Known Member
Not in physics terminology, anyway. But then most people don't distinguish between, for instance, power and energy, or stress and strain...
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I sailed on a boat once which had one long winch handle in reserve for windy days. It was about 12 or 14" long and had been made by sawing a shorter handle in half and bolting the halves into the ends of a bit of SS tube. The skipper liked it but I found it awkward to swing. It seemed easier to me to luff a little to take the strain off the sheet, then winch in with a normal handle.
mjcoon
Well-Known Member
Agreed, a much better solution with less wear and tear. Especially since many boats don't have room to swing a longer handle through 360 degrees without at least barked knuckles...
Goldie
Well-Known Member
Maybe try and find one of these? "EASY~WINCH, reducing the effort of manual winching" from Calidus Engineering Ltd. Winch in in the normal way for speed and then employ the Easy-winch when it gets too hard. I bought one for my previous boat - cheaper than upgrading 9 winches!
Chiara’s slave
Well-Known Member
We have a 12” handle, but we don’t use it as a rule. Joking aside, our winches are correctly sized by the boatbuilders, we use an 8” handle for everything, the big one lives in a locker. It’s much kinder on the arms, a long handle is just hard work with or without a load. That easywinch thing looks interesting. The other thing that’s cheaper than replacing all your winches is an electric handle. We’ll probably do that when I’m not up to winding the mainsail up. Not so much high load, but capacity for work.
Kelpie
Well-Known Member
It's all a conspiracy by Big Winch to sell bigger winches.
LONG_KEELER
Well-Known Member
I shifted to a 10" very heavy Lewmar chromed handle and it's made a big difference for winding that last 6 ft of mainsail going up. I don't think it's psychological but even if it is I'm happy.
Blueboatman
Well-Known Member
Avoid 150% genoas
And or fit a ring or block on the clew with a 2:1 sheet
Cheaper ( and lighter and simpler , ah so grasshopper )
And or fit a ring or block on the clew with a 2:1 sheet
Cheaper ( and lighter and simpler , ah so grasshopper )
Resolution
Well-Known Member
We had one of those as well. No locking mechanism so pretty useless for winching , but it made for a very smart and effective basher of lumps of ice . For the G&T of course.
benjenbav
Well-Known Member
I’m guessing the reason most winch handles are as they are is because winches are often located close to guardrails or cockpit coamings so the swept path of a longer handle might be too close to these obstructions to allow for comfortable use.
If space is no object it would be easy to mate a star-pattern driver to a torque wrench thereby allowing a greater swept path with the facility to set the torque so as not to strip the winch gears.
If space is no object it would be easy to mate a star-pattern driver to a torque wrench thereby allowing a greater swept path with the facility to set the torque so as not to strip the winch gears.
Chiara’s slave
Well-Known Member
That would only be of use for small adjustments, the main reason why handles are the length they are is ergonomics. Us humans develop maximum power with a 16-20” diameter grind. Too big and you waste energy and force moving your whole body to chase the handle.
lustyd
Well-Known Member
No, they are the way they are because it's a convenient length that is reasonably quick to use while providing sufficient leverage. The energy/power used to wind in a given length of rope doesn't change, so as long as the gearing and lever length allow most people to wind it it's good enough. Up to a certain point shorter is better than longer. On a wobbly boat stability is also useful so it's handy that the winch offers some resistance when you lean on it.
KenF
Member
Why not get a self- tacker !
Chiara’s slave
Well-Known Member
A great idea for fractional rigs with big mains. But leaves masthead rigs with small mains that rely on the foresail a bit short of power.
PetiteFleur
Well-Known Member
I have Andersen winches on my boat - oversized for a 33' - I did get them for a bargain at a local auction as they were seized (taken from a sunken boat) cleaned up, fitted a couple of new items and they are excellent. Winching very easy!
johnalison
Well-Known Member
That may depend on the boat. My usual routine is to tension the sheet as best I can by hand while tacking, and then use the ratchet function to get the final tension. It is not often that I have to grind it through 360 degrees, consequently I use a long Lewmar handle for the jib sheets and a short one for the halyard winches on the coachroof.
Chiara’s slave
Well-Known Member
If you get the tack right on Chiara, there is no winching, you wrap the sheet on the winch before the tack, pull like crazy and bang it in the cleat, job done. We winch the last couple of metres of mainsail halyard, well, that’s 4 metres of rope as it’s a 2:1 halyard. You want full revolutions to accomplish that in any sensible time frame, plus some low gear tensioning.
johnalison
Well-Known Member
As I say, all boats are different. I can get the main up to within a foot of the top or better, so a few turns on the winch suffices. The position of the halyard winch under the sprayhood doesn’t encourage vigorous winching, but the shorter handle can deal with it well enough.