Upgrading winches

[delevi]

I considered the winchers too, but I recall a while back, KHEast was giving his set away. He wasn't happy with them. Don't know the details.

[bscott]

Don't they come in pairs? I've got a set of 7s from a previous boat still in my tackle box that I decided not to use.

bscott

[delevi]

Ok folks. I tried out the Winchers. I can now say with certainty that this product is junk. The only thing it's good for is causing a winch over-ride. No good for sheets. No good for halyards. A real self-tailing winch has a guide for the line as it goes from the winch to the tailing/cleating mechanism. Without that, the physics just don't work, and neither does this product. It only took me an hour to decide to remove these annoying things from my winches. Couldn't do it. I ended up cutting them off. Don't know if they'll take them back, but I have some clout at West Marine, so I'll try. When I do, I'll be sure to recommend that they shouldn't carry these things in their inventory. So, if you want self-tailers, you'll need to get new winches. But before you do, consider the downside of self tailers. It takes much more time to let a sheet out vs. a standard winch. In the races I crewed in, two guys would man the spinnaker sheet, even though the winch was self-tailing, we never cleated it off. One guy grinding and another tailing and holding the line at all times so it can be quickly let out when needed. At the end of the day, everything is a compromise.

[Kelly Hanson East]

Just realised you guys might not know that the factory changed the winches from Lewmars to the Forestar marelon winches last year. I dont like them.