Winches

[robturner]

I have two perfectly good two speed winches on my Moody 27, but they are not self-tailing. I have seen advertised some rubber sleeves that can be fitted to most winches, converting them into self tailers. I belive they are called "Winchers" Has anybody used them? do they work?. Any information would be welcome.
Thanks.

 

[LORDNELSON]

I used them on my last boat (present boat has ST's). In my opinion Winchers work but not as well as purpose made self-tailers; I found that the main problem was that the winch had to be kept "full" of rope (ie about four turns) and this made releasing the sheets a rather slow business. However I would rather have them than no cleating on the winch at all and it may be that others have developed a better technique for using Winchers.

 

[jfkal]

Used them but finally bought real selftailing winches. The self tailing works but you still need the other hand to clear the rope otherwise it just continues wrapping around the winch. They are a pain to fit since they need to be really tight fit. Use lots of hot water to make them soft and use soap to slip them over.
Agree better than nothing but no match to a real self tailing winch.
I bought Andersen winches, less expensive and I am really happy.

 

[vyv_cox]

Agree. The only useful contribution they make is that two hands can be used for the winching as there is no need to tail. However it only allows about one turn at a time because, as others have said, there is a need to release the tail manually from the stack of coils that accumulates. For singlehanders there is some benefit to be gained but for a crewed boat it's hardly worth having them.

 

[Nicolas]

Do you know

if they are available for any size of winches, and maybe in different colors?
who actually make them?

Thanks
Nicolas

 

[Johnjo]

Good information, was going to buy some, will not bother now,
thanks for saving me a few pounds!

mike