We need a new boat winch
Every boat has several winches to make life easier but when a winch is not doing her best job what is the captain to do? Our captain goes in search of our perfect boat winch.
What will her main function be?
A boat winch serves a multitude of purposes, she lifts heavy loads, furls the mast in and out, and holds lines tight when needed. Our winch makes our daily sailing life much easier. Therefore when shopping for our winch we wanted to consider what her main functions would be.
There are different types and sizes of boat winches. Some are heavy and robust, while other are small without much power. There are non-self tailing winches, self-tailing winches, single speed winches, and dual speed winches. A non-self tailing winch is usually used for lighter duty jobs. This type winch is what we had and she was of very little help. We had to “crank’ her handle with one hand while handling the line (rope) with the other. A self-tailing winch is what we wanted and is used for the heavier jobs. We can “crank” with both hands while the winch tails the line herself.
The boat winch is too small
On our boat, Out of Sight, we had a small #16 non-self tailing winch on our mast. This is the winch we use raising the headsail, lifting each other up the mast in the bosun’s chair, and other lifting maneuvers using the spare halyard. When using said winch it took every ounce of strength we could muster to get the job done. After a brief discussion we decided the old girl had to go and it was time to go shopping for our perfect boat winch.
Boat winches can be $$$
We started shopping for our winch online in all the usual marine stores. New winches can get very pricey and many are back ordered. We did however make a quick trip to the local boating resale shop to check out what winches they had laying around. Low and behold, we were lucky enough to find a #40 dual speed self-tailing winch which fits perfectly on our mast mount. Plus she cost less than 1/2 the price of a new winch. A good used robust winch is what our boat needed.
She works like a charm
Our perfect boat winch was dirty but otherwise in very good shape. We gave her a quick cleaning and greasing and she works like a charm. And now that she is mounted to the mast she is going to make life for us a little easier.
