Winches

While sailing, your sails will be hoisted, reefed, and trimmed, parts of rigging will be tensioned, booms' angles will be controlled and adjusted, even crew members will be hoisted to check parts of rigging. To do all this winches are absolutely necessary. Whether they are powered or manual, they control what's happening to various lines on a boat.

Most winches are designed to rotate in one direction, and to ratchet-lock in the other. While a light tension is maintained on the loose end of a line, a few turns of a loaded line around the winch drum will sustain high loads thanks to the friction on the drum's surface. When you pull on the line, it rotates the winch, and pulls even more load onto the drum. When you ease up a little, the line will be able to slide on the drum, and can be stopped at any minute by simply returning to the same tension as before on the loose end. If you use a winch handle, you can pull much greater loads through the winch - something inevitable in high winds and/or racing. The tail of the line should be cleated as soon as the sail is trimmed properly.

Some winches have two gears (employed between the handle and the drum), and larger boats use winches with three gears. Racing sailors need light-weight winches made of titanium and carbonfiber. Cruising sailors need durable and low-maintenance winches. Large yachts use electric or hydraulic power, which allows for one-gear winches. Reel winches hold all the line they wind in, and a new range of so called "captive" winches is becoming more and more popular. There, the winch mechanisms are placed below the decks, helping to keep the deck free of lines, and all trimming can be done by the helmsperson, with a push of a button.

The winch handle's mechanical advantage is determined by the length of its arm. Two-handled handles are used by serious racers, and usually are made of chromed bronze. Not extremely stressed handles are made of anodized alloy. The choice is up to you, but certainly the racing sailor will almost always have to spend more money than a cruising one.

WINCHES	WINCH HANDLES and A HANDLE HOLDER