Self Tailing Winch

[Jackdaw]

Currently, the only boats that will make the so-called 'best' choice to NOT to have self-tailers are fully crewed race boats. On these boats you always have a 2nd person to tail, and without the wiper on top the line is much easier to strip in a hurry.

For all other boats, the only reason not to have self-tailers is cost. The smallest STs I know are Lewmar 14s, at $1000/set. That's serious money on a boat that might only be worth that. And I can also see someone saying that they would rather send the money on other systems. That's fair, but still about cost.

Old boats often did not have STs, but that's just about them being old.

So don't let anyone tell you it's dumb. Just because they don't want to spend the money on their boat does not mean you should not. Standard winches were designed for two-person operation. These days when there are often only two people on the boat, STers make a huge amount of sense.

 

[Meriachee]

self tailing winches on everything even in the pickup truck

Is that the foundation for the statement "release the hounds" ?

"run what 'ya brung". If that doesn't work for you change it. But don't usually expect a $1.98 solution to be a very good one. We wanted to retrofit the aft winches that were an often overlooked option from Catalina, and there was never any question about installing the same as the ones up front, a decision that turned out to be the best one, from a symmetry and ease of use perspective.

 

[Fred]

The starboard winch is very useful ( essential?) to manage the main halyard and the mast raising system. For that reason I would not eliminate it.

 

[Dave Groshong]

I like a cam cleat for easy release, it's usually on a riser to allow a very fair lead, EXACTLY like Joe's picture.

 

[DJN51]

I installed these Spinlock cleats.for my jib.Only use winch to hard The Mainsail

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

Fred, you are correct for the starboard winch, Sorry about that.