Mast winch for main halyard
- Thread starter Dan.Lamont
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I installed a winch on my Oday 25 for the mainsail halyward. I got the winch pad from Selden at www.seldenmast.com. Search for 'winch pad' and go to page 68-69 of the product catalog. The winch pad was installed using a cheapo rivet gun I got off ebay (used). The winch is a Forespar marelon I got from West Marine. If I had to do over I would get a better winch used off ebay or maybe Bacons in Annapolis.
Good advice on sources. But why do you think you need one on a 26 foot boat? Never felt any need for one on our C25, and had the halyards led aft. Only need was for the jib halyard, not the main. Consider a cunningham instead.
Mast Winch on O'Day 26
I agree with Stu in that I fail to see the need of a mast winch for the main halyard on an O'Day 26 if its sole purpose is to raise the main. I am 72 years of age and sail the same boat but have no intention of adding a mast winch and gave one away that was installed, for reason unknown, on my prior boat, an O'Day 23.
My 1986 O'Day 222 came with a mast winch and I can only partially agree with you about the need for one and how you use it. I operate my mast winch without the handle in the same way that I operate my Gennie winches on my combings and that is, without the winch handle.
I just use it like a capstan. It really depends on how your halyards are set up. My Z-Spar internal halyard mast has two open clam cleats above the mast winch and when I run the Mainsail up, I take one wrap around the winch and wind two more around the drum and pull the halyard up tight. The clam cleat holds the halyard tension and allows me to pull the wraps right straight off the drum so that I can cleat it off on the Main Halyard horn cleat. You can't imagine how fast this operation can be unless you've really worked with it and it's equally fast when reefing the sail. You can develop a lot of tension on that halyard by standing in front of your mast and pulling that halyard with three wraps on the drum, but you need to have a clam cleat to hold what you've got in order to pull the wraps off the drum and cleat it off.
I also have clam cleats mounted on my combings directly behind my Gennie winches and I haven't found anything yet to compete with that set up. A few of my friends have also adopted this set up which I learned about in "Small Boat Journal" magazine years ago.
Oh, and by the way, there's one other thing I might add to this discussion about mast winches; If the winch is mounted just above the sail track slot, you can use it for a sail stop by lashing a thin diameter short line to it. I used a thin twine to hold a 3/16"X 16" braid line to the winch bracket and secure my sail slugs with a slipped reef knot.
Maybe the proper question would be, "do you need the winch handle?" and I can only speak for myself on that one. All I can say is, I'll probably never lose my winch handle because it's been sitting in the cabin shelf behind the back rest gathering dust for years.
I just use it like a capstan. It really depends on how your halyards are set up. My Z-Spar internal halyard mast has two open clam cleats above the mast winch and when I run the Mainsail up, I take one wrap around the winch and wind two more around the drum and pull the halyard up tight. The clam cleat holds the halyard tension and allows me to pull the wraps right straight off the drum so that I can cleat it off on the Main Halyard horn cleat. You can't imagine how fast this operation can be unless you've really worked with it and it's equally fast when reefing the sail. You can develop a lot of tension on that halyard by standing in front of your mast and pulling that halyard with three wraps on the drum, but you need to have a clam cleat to hold what you've got in order to pull the wraps off the drum and cleat it off.
I also have clam cleats mounted on my combings directly behind my Gennie winches and I haven't found anything yet to compete with that set up. A few of my friends have also adopted this set up which I learned about in "Small Boat Journal" magazine years ago.
Oh, and by the way, there's one other thing I might add to this discussion about mast winches; If the winch is mounted just above the sail track slot, you can use it for a sail stop by lashing a thin diameter short line to it. I used a thin twine to hold a 3/16"X 16" braid line to the winch bracket and secure my sail slugs with a slipped reef knot.
Maybe the proper question would be, "do you need the winch handle?" and I can only speak for myself on that one. All I can say is, I'll probably never lose my winch handle because it's been sitting in the cabin shelf behind the back rest gathering dust for years.
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