Wire Halyard Winches ???

[Trevj]

I've just bought a 25 year old boat with all-wire halyards. These lead to dedicated caged winches (one per halyard) that have, what seems to be, two-stage drums. By that I mean that the drum has a raised and partially segregated section nearest to the mast.
I have two questions.
One - what is the raised section used for (besides getting the halyard caught and bunching-up the whole lot? (Any advice on using these things would be helpful)
Two - is it possible to convert these things to accept spectra (or similar) halyards?


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[William_H]

I have a 21 ft boat which is raced hard. I replaced the wire halyard spliced to polyester rope jib hayard some time back with 6mm spectra. I have been disapointed in the spectra regarding stretch and have to retension the jib halyard after 5 mins sailing. A bit tedious when you have multiple spinnacker runs with jib drops over a short race. Of course it is a lot cheaper than wire and poly spliced but certainly is not nostretch. (Perhaps I was sold a ring in ie not spectra) so I recommend stick to the wire winch. Don't know much about them though will

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[flaming]

Normally the two drums on the winch are for two different speeds. So wind on the fastest (larger drum) then when it gets hard work push the wire over onto the smaller drum. Should be some sort of notch in the drum to catch the wire as you transfer it, my memory's a bit hazy it's been a while since I sailed with captive wire winches.

But if I was you I'd rip them off the boat. Don't think you'll be able to use spectra with them, best off just replacing with modern winches and spectra or similar. Much, much easier to use.

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[dickh]

Look on the Lewmar website - they describe them there.

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I'd rather be sailing... /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[snowleopard]

the bulk of the wire goes onto the main section of the drum. trouble is that when you winch up tight the wire tends to crush the looser turns underneath and can bite into them causing a jam. as you approach full hoist you push the wire into the smaller section so that the last turn rests on bare metal. bit of a fiddle as you have to guide the wire while you hoist but it's an improvement over a simple drum.

having used both types of wire winch, i'm now much happier with conventional winches and clutches and my new dyneema halliard. i wouldn't recommend putting dyneema or other rope onto a wire drum as it's less resistant to being nipped over hard metal edges.

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[kds]

Trev,
I had a similar setup on a 29ft. wood mast and found it quite easy to use if you made sure that the wire went on evenly and being able to get exactly the tension you want was a pleasure as there was no subsequent stretch.
Ken

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[Trevj]

Thanks, It seems obvious now you have explained it!
Regards
Trev

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