Winchers - are they worth it?

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Mandarin331

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I'm intrigued by reading another thread about self tailing winches - which then mentioned winchers. We've been looking at self tailers but the cost is too much when we have a perfectly good (if old) pair of sheet winches - but I'd never heard of winchers.

We have 25 year old Lewmar winches (not sure of the size until I get back down to the boat in a couple of weks) in perfect working order and 12mm sheets.

A quick serach of the internet shows Barton Winchers at £45 each. Would these fit a Lewmar winch or doesn't the make matter?

Also the comments seem to be varied on this forum about how effective they are - what's the thought - should we go for them or not.
 
Yes, I have had them on my Lewmar genoa winches on my Sadler 34 for a few years. They make single handed winching much easier and they have lasted surprisingly well considering I leave them out in the sun, rain and frost without covers - I am still on the original pair.

What they don't do is strip the tail of the sheet off the drum, like a proper self-tailer does. What they do do is grip the sheet on the drum while you winch it allowing you to leave the tail loose without the turns on the winch slipping. This makes single handed sailing very much easier.

On my setup, my jib sheets are thicker than the wincher is expecting for the size of winch (I can't be bothered to replace the sheets with thinner ones), so the sheets don't fit easily into the slots to 'cleat' them - which is my fault not the manufacturers'.

Good bit of kit, in my opinion. I should think the £45 price should buy you a pair (used to be two in a packet) unless the price has gone up a lot.
 
Winchers come in 3 sizes and have a table showing which size of winch they are suited to. I have had some for a couple of seasons, and while they are pretty good, do have some drawbacks as I said in my other post. I am fitting larger STs this winter.

They certainly fit Lewmar and I would have thought the make of winch is irrelevant unless the shape of the top edge of the drum differs greatly?

I originally bought some from Foxes which should have fitted my Lewmar 30s according to the table, but on trying them they were far too small, and I was able to exchange them for the next size up. It may be that drum dimensions have changed a bit with time so the table is not exact?

Hope this helps.
 
Best for the foresail winches - that's where the benefits are most noticeable - during tacking etc.

Definitely in a class above fendevites and other bits of otherwise useless plastic we all decorate our boats with over time...

PWG
 
I find them OK, rather than great, since they still need stripping by hand.

PM me for the tricks for fitting them if you can't get them on the winch /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Well it looks as if I'm on my own on this thread, because I think they are over-priced and over-hyped.

I fitted them many years ago when they were advertised along the lines of, 'Turn your ordinary winches to self-tailers' and, like many, rushed out to buy a pair. Ok, it was many years ago and the design may well have changed now, along with concerns over Trading Standards no doubt! Clearly they do not perform anything like the real thing.

Accepting that, what I found as a very regular single-hander, was that it actually slowed down tacking, because in order for the Winchers to be even half effective, the winch drum has to have enough turns on the drum to jam the sheet under the Wincher rim. This takes time.

Then, when you tack, this build up of line has to be removed. On non self-tailing winches, the sheet can be lifted vertically and 'spun' off the winch, with the Wincher in place, we found that the sheet often 'snagged' (friction?) on the rubber.

The other fallacy, is that you can simply jam the sheet under the Wincher to save cleating it off. For us it very seldom worked and the sheet often released itself at often inconvenient times, so we went back to cleating them off as usual.

The 'killer' point for me, is that you STILL have to use your other hand to tail the sheet and still (see above) have to cleat the line off in our experience.

Ok, we only struggled on with the things for a couple of seasons before cutting them off and binning them. At least four of the guys in our boatyard did exactly the same after varying periods.

Thought I'd put another point of view!
 
I was going to buy some a few years back as I single-hand a lot. talking to others in the yard - I heard similar stories and decided to not buy.
I can't say yes or no to their working as I didn't buy them, but I know that the info I got from those people years ago was based on their use.
 
[ QUOTE ]
The 'killer' point for me, is that you STILL have to use your other hand to tail the sheet and still (see above) have to cleat the line off in our experience.


[/ QUOTE ]

I don't, but I do to fill the drum with rope so that it grips the underside of the wincher. Likewise cleating off - not normally necessary if you put the rope into the main groove of the wincher.
The wincher debate is aired regularly on the forum, I wouldn't be without mine, they are not as good as self tailers but if you do not want to spend a lot of money then I, at least, find them a significant improvement on a non-self tailing winch. It might also depend on your style of sailing - we cruise not race.
 
Thanks for all the comment.

We're not racing, just family cruising, sometimes short handed on deck (at least for strength) Speed is not really an issue, and even if they do need two hands its got to be better than trying to operate the winch without anything...surely?

Also if we have to cleat them then that's only what we have to do now - with the sheet pulling hard - even after three turns on the winch.

After reading all the helpful input and the pros and cons we're seriously interested and will probably give them a try next season.
 
They work for me.

Agreed you have to strip by hand, which slows down sheeting in.

But the groove has never let the sheet loose for me.

A good adaptation of the old winch, and certainly cost effective.

Getting the right size must be essential to get a good grip. Not easy to put on, but thats that is part of the course for a good working system
 
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