1985 Hunter 34 New Cabin Top Winches

[c07chrisjohnson]

Hello,

I ordered new winches for my 1985 Hunter 34. I got two Lewmar EVO 40STs to replace the two aft most winches that work the jib sheets. For the two smaller cabin top winches I ordered 2 Lewmar EVO 15STs. Looking at the Lewmar winch chart it seemed these would work, although I must admit the chart was a little confusing, first off there is no 15 on the chart.

When I opened the boxes it looked like the 15s are pretty small. I'm not doing any offshore sailing, just planning to sail at most to Catalina from Marina Del Rey.

Does anyone have any experience with replacing the cabin top winches? What are you using? Did I interpret this chart (attached) correctly? I was looking at the main halyard row and 35ft column.

Thank you!

 

[Phil McCall]

I have Lewmar 40's on the cabin top , and Lewmar 44's as the primarys.

 

[kloudie1]

I think you read the table correctly, but I don’t know if they have a different table for the EVO. The originals were Maxwell 21, I think. I would think that if you are not racing, they’ll be fine considering that they are always 2:1 gearing.

 

[Charlie98117]

My H34 has exactly what you’re proposing, 40ST primary and 15ST cabin top. The 40s can be difficult to pull in when heavily loaded but generally they work fine. No problem with the 15s.

 

[markwbird]

Those seem a bit light. I have Lewmar 40's on the cabin top and Lewmar 46 ST's for the jib sheets. I sail SF Bay where it gets quite windy but the 46's are still a chore to haul in the jib sheets with when the wind gets up into the upper teens. The cabin top 40's are plenty big for hauling up the halyards but I also use them for the spin sheet.

 

[c07chrisjohnson]

Thanks everyone, appreciate all the information. I can see where it might be nice to have a little extra help with bigger winches, gonna have to chew on maybe getting bigger winches for a minute