Winchers are they worth it?

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samwise

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Has anyone any experience of Winchers --those little rubber jobbies you fit on to conventional winches to turn them into self-tailers?

I'm not sure if they are man enough for primaries, but we have a couple of small, winches used for the in-mast reefing system and a self tail facility , albeit a bit primitive, would be very useful especially when sailing short-handed.

Any views or experience gratefully received.

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I've no experience of them myself but our local chandlers had a box of these with a sign saying " free winchers, provided you don't come back & ask how the're supposed to work".
Never took up the offer.

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I've used them on a snapdragon 26 I was on. They were on the primaries there, but I didn't find them all that good. These particular ones dont work as a self tailer would, however they do work as jammers so you dont have to use the cleats. They were however fairly old and had suffered from the UV so perhaps new winchers would be more effective.

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Bought some in Nieuwport(if that's how you spell the place) on an impulse and fitted them to 2 very old Lewmar 40's. Have been very impressed. As long as you put enough turns on the winch to "bite" on the underside of the top and then place the rope in the grove they will half self-tail-i.e. you have to winch with one hand and peel the sheet out of the grove with the other or use 2 hands but stop after the rope is catching itself up and take some out of the groove. SWMBO is very pleased because she can helm without tailing and I now have to winch in and cleat off all by myself. Beats the Atkins diet though! Beating from Gravesend to Queenborough with a stiff Northeasterly I lost 6/7 lbs in about 5 hours. Make sure, though, you buy the right size-they must be a really tight fit. Hope this helps

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I have used them for over twenty years on my Halmatic 30, which I sail single-handed most of the time. They are so effective that I rarely bother to cleat off the tail, even in strong winds. You do have to peel the excess turns off the winch, but this quickly becomes second nature.

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I have used them on the primary winches of my Sabre 27 for 8 years and find them excellent. You must get the correct size for the winch and you must put on sufficient turns (about 4 in my case) to ensure the sheet jams on the underside of the "Wincher". I rarely use the cleating groove because the friction from the underside of the "Wincher" is sufficient and I tend to take the tail round a cleat for complete assurance.

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Used em for 3,000 miles on the primaries of my 32 ft Nantucket Clipper. Excellent. Best 25 Euros ish I ever spent.

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I have some since .... at least 15 years, in the med. Still going strong, although not as strong as new ones.
Pleased with them, although not as good as genuine self tailers.
You get what you pay for!


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Very useful for single-handing. I started by using them on my Halmatic 30 to secure headsail sheets temporarily during a tack until I had time to cleat the sheet off properly, but soon found that they were perfectly secure even in breezy conditions.

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Pretty much as we found. All the winches had "Winchers" installed when we bought the boat, but we never found the knack of getting them to work for us. Perhaps they were just too old. Eventually replaced primaries with self-tailing wiches, a whole lot easier albeit more expensive solution.

Jeff.

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