Additional jib winches?
- Thread starter Kermit
- Start date
Kermit
Just musing but... Alternatively, could you add a fair lead to a cam cleat that is in the same run with your jib sheet winches. Leave a few turns on the winch and run the line back to the cam cleat near the wheel. Your existing winches would still give you mechanical advantage and would work in all but the heaviest of conditions when you really needed to crank down hard.
Just musing but... Alternatively, could you add a fair lead to a cam cleat that is in the same run with your jib sheet winches. Leave a few turns on the winch and run the line back to the cam cleat near the wheel. Your existing winches would still give you mechanical advantage and would work in all but the heaviest of conditions when you really needed to crank down hard.
Or just move the winches. My thought is converting to a wheel instead of a tiller went beyond the original design of many boats. Compare sitting comfortably with a tiller in one hand and sheet in the other to standing at the wheel and not being able to reach the sheets. They never made the conversion complete. Our Mark 1 Catalina had the throttle control at my feet while standing at the wheel.
All U Get
Without a handle working, a winch offers no mechanical advantage to a line wrapped around it.
Hmmm.... I'm not sure that is correct. There is a big difference in the length of the lever arm when the handle is installed but you still get the distance from the center of the drum to it's outer diameter (the radius) as a defacto lever arm. So there is still mechanical advantage on the winch even without the winch handle at work. I've sailed on a 50' schooner before and the main sheet had a winch that was 10" diameter. And in a light 8mph wind, I could pull that line by hand.... I'm not that strong. I'm pretty sure I had some help.
A line under tension wrapped around the winch will be darn near impossible to pull, depending on the load. A well loaded line won't pull without using the handle to turn the drum.
In this scenario, the winch is providing little more than a line stopper, and only if the line is cleated or maintains it's tension to some other (further aft) device. It won't do the job that Kermee is looking for.
In this scenario, the winch is providing little more than a line stopper, and only if the line is cleated or maintains it's tension to some other (further aft) device. It won't do the job that Kermee is looking for.
Regardless of who is right, I really think I want winches near the helm. I almost never use the winch handle for the jib sheets. I'd still have to go forward to release the sheet from the winch as the jib comes around, though, so that would seem to negate any advantage of having just new cleats. I would leave the original winches where they are assuming they won't interfere with the travel of the sheets.
I wonder what @Crazy Dave Condon might think of this idea?
I wonder what @Crazy Dave Condon might think of this idea?
I *really* want to use them in Canada. With you onboard. On our way to get thrown out of a bar or 5.
Hmmm... No.
All the mechanical advantage in a winch comes from the ratio of the handle:drum sweep. Bigger winches might have 2:1 3: or 4:1 internal reductions that multiply that, but a simple wrap and a pull does nothing more that act like a line brake, and indeed ADDS internal friction. If you do 4 inches of effort and get 4 inches of work, going around the biggest drum in the world does nothing for you. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Hmmm.... yeah I think you are right.
I was getting ideas of block and tackle mixed up in my mind but there is no trade-off of force for distance on a winch. My bad.
I'm glad you said what you did. All I know is having a winch helps. Never knew why. Just did.
Hey Ralph, we have to have a discussion with Kermee. Removed from 5 is the price of admission.
It took me a while to figure out your picture, had to turn my laptop. Is that a spinnaker halyard and foil for the jib that you can store at the mast? I must have missed something about the winches.
All U Get
I use to replace the original jib sheets with longer lines which allowed me to release one while pulling the other already set up in the other cam cleat when tacking. If you do place winches on the cockpit coaming adjacent to the wheel, remember that the line from the cabin top winch to another winch in the cockpit will severely rub against the edge of the cabin top and cockpit compamion wall as it will come in a downward path
The spinnaker crane has been moved forward 6" for the top-down furler as the drums could touch.
The Hunter 260 is fractional. He has all the room in the world for a spin halyard. You boat was messy because it is masthead and not designed from the onset for spinnaker.
Thanks for responding, Dave. You're right about the sheet rubbing the gelcoat. I hadn't thought of that. I have been experimenting with exactly what you described. My sheets are long enough to reach the helm. Trimming the jib from that angle and distance don't come natural to me but practice should help. The only part that still seems to absolutely require I go forward is unwrapping the sheet from the winch. And wrapping the new sheet around its winch. (My winches are not self-tailing.) Any thoughts on that?