I am a new O'Day owner, have a 1985 Anniversary 26. Needs work, but I'm impressed with it overall. The genoa winches are terrible, Barlow 18. I have a chance to buy Lewmar 14ST (or AST I guess) Self Tailers. They appear to be the same size. I am getting a 135% genoa. Are these too small? They are the same size as what is there now, the Barlow's. They are one speed (which is fine with me), and would appear to fit the base.
Self Tailing Winch Size For O'Day 26
- Thread starter hejira17
- Start date
I would get the Lewmar 16ST. It is exactly the same as the 14 in every way, but has a taller drum and can take 1-2 more wraps of line.
Thanks - that was fast. My draw toward the 14 is that I can get 3 of them for $695, I could have 2 for the genoa and one on cabin top for the halyards. I'm not racing the boat. So the 16's are better, but do you think the 14's are good enough?
The difference between the barlow 18 and the lewmar single speed will show up in the gear ratio. The 18's are two speed... 1:1 and 3:1 while the lewmar will be 2:1 only.. So.... how will that affect your sailing... first, you'll find as a genoa winch the 2 speeds are much more efficient in that you can rapidly reel in on high speed then micro trim with the low.. On the single speed 2:1 it's much slower bringing in line... so you'll be hand stripping most of the time... that's not a bad thing... but the self tailing feature becomes less important and you'll miss the power of the low speed if your trimming under a load. The smallest 2 speed Lewmar ST winches are 30's and will run you around $800-900 discounted....but .......... if you wait for the yearly two for one Lewmar promotion hosted by West Marine it actually becomes an affordable upgrade.
I think you'll be happy with what ever you get.. I'm just saying that your dynamics will change with the different ratios so be prepared....
Finally, I highly recommend you DO NOT remove your old winches cleats because you are converting to ST winches... you'll find that a series of tacks is much faster if you revert to the old system of and stripping in the sheet with a few wraps on the drum, then cleating while you get on the new tack.... after which you can load up the drum and use the self tailing feature to make your adjustments.
I think you'll be happy with what ever you get.. I'm just saying that your dynamics will change with the different ratios so be prepared....
Finally, I highly recommend you DO NOT remove your old winches cleats because you are converting to ST winches... you'll find that a series of tacks is much faster if you revert to the old system of and stripping in the sheet with a few wraps on the drum, then cleating while you get on the new tack.... after which you can load up the drum and use the self tailing feature to make your adjustments.