WINCHES Expert tips on servicing, and a guide to the latest designs
A staple for all sailors, the winch is one of the hardest working pieces of kit on the boat.toby Heppell looks at how the latest winches are changing
It’s easy to view winches as a never-changing staple of sailing and to some extent that is true. While the basic concept of winches has changed little over years, incremental developments have made today’s winches easier to use, kinder on you and your kit, lighter, and more reliable than ever.
POWER
With regards to power, manufacturers generally name their winches according to the approximate power ratio generated by the highest, most powerful gear. A Harken 40, for example, has a drum diameter of 80mm and a gear ratio of 6.28 in its most powerful gear. The formula is twice the handle length multiplied by the gear ratio, divided by the drum diameter. So for the Harken 40 with a standard 10-inch handle: ((2x254mm) x 6.28) / 80mm = 39.9. This means that for roughly every 40 inches you rotate the winch handle, one inch of line will be pulled onto the drum.
The Andersen 40, by comparison, has a drum diameter of 75mm and secondgear ratio of 6.00, which achieves the same overall power ratio as the wider, Harken 40 drum.
Manufacturers provide sizing guides, so you don’t have to calculate the power required to haul the sail. However, the criteria used by manufacturers differs, making comparisons difficult. Some use solely boat length, while others use estimated sail sizes, plus boat and/or rig specifications. As a rule of thumb, the difference between brands’ recommendations usually reflects their different attitudes to performance and what power is required to efficiently pull in a certain area of sail. Those companies with a more race-orientated background tend to recommend more power for an equivalent-sized sail compared to pure cruising companies.
There are also significant differences in loads on halyards and sheets for heavy cruising boats vs. light displacement race boats, monohulls and multihulls, which is why it’s difficult to generalise.
Bear in mind that the published power ratio of a winch (the ‘number’ of the winch) is based on using a 10in handle. With an 8in handle, your mechanical advantage is reduced by 20%. In the case of a 40 winch, in the most powerful gear your power is reduced from 40:1 to 32:1.
GEARING
For a long time most winches came in either a single or dual-speed offering, but in the past decade an abundance of three-speed and four-speed winches have hit the market. Pontos was an innovative start-up French company based on Saint-malo which brought its four-speed winches to the market in 2012/2013 but it has been bought out by fellow French deckware supplier, Karver, which has developed the range. Their winches come with a classic first stage identical to standard two-speed designs and a second stage consisting of an epicyclical gear train which engages two further gears. This proprietary technology allows Karver to deliver winches that are either faster than traditional two-speed winches (their Speed Range), or more powerful, (Power Range).
On a 38-foot boat, with a 40m2 (430sq ft) genoa, in 25 knots of wind, a standard two-speed winch will need 13kg (10lb) to trim the sail. Karver says the effort required with a Karver Power allows this to be reduced to only 4.7kg (10lb). Although many now offer a three-speed, these sell in the biggest numbers to the racing crowd, for whom trim speed is a vital component. The main issue here is the increased cost. All things being equal, there are few drawbacks to a three-speed winch, but it is not strictly necessary, unless you are sailing something over 40ft with a large overlapping headsail.
MATERIALS
Drum material is another area of change, but it isn’t just about the ‘look’. There is little mechanical reason to select a chromed or bronze drum over an aluminum one. The key differentiation is weight saving. If you take a Lewmar EVO 40ST, its total weight in aluminum is 4.9kg (11lb) while chrome or bronze is 6.5kg (14lb). Granted, these are not huge discrepancies but considering the total weight saving across all your winches, this does add up.
Composite materials provide an even greater weight saving of course, but are significantly pricier and remain largely the preserve of the racing set. However, as prices come down, this will filter down to the cruising market. Ultimately, composite drums are kind on ropes and their reduced weight will also be a boon. At the very top level, ceramic coatings can be seen on top-flight race boats, in order to reduce the heat generated by the friction. Constant high-speed trimming can create enough heat to melt ropes, so this is essential on the biggest, highest-performance boats. Unlike carbon winches, however, it is unlikely that we will see this filter down to the cruising market any time soon, as the likelihood of creating the sort of friction heat needed to melt ropes should probably never be an issue, though friction wear will be.
As a general rule, the shinier the material, the greater the propensity for the line to slip, so most drums, especially chromed ones, either have an abrasive surface or are ‘ribbed’ in some fashion. Ribs offer slightly reduced holding power over a truly abrasive surface but they do have other advantages. Line wear is reduced, which has the obvious advantage of keeping lines newer for longer. In addition, the angle of the ribs can be designed to drive the line turns down the drum to reduce the risk of a riding turn. Given the reduced holding power of more highly polished finishes, you will often find the number of ribs on a drum increases on these models, so an anodised aluminium drum will have far fewer ribs than a chrome-finished drum.
Again, whether ribs or abrasive grip is offered is often a function of the market winches are pitched at. While some performance products, aimed at lots of trimming, opt for ribs with slightly reduced holding power but less line wear, others accept the friction, and the need to replace worn lines regularly. Without ribs, the abrasive finish is usually created either by the drum’s casting, or by sandblasting a portion of the drum. This is where chromed or bronze finishes have an advantage, as their abrasive surfaces will wear more slowly than on aluminium drums.