[Alberg30] secondaries vs cabintop winches

[Larry Morris]

J.

you mentioned you were getting new primary winches?  What are you doing with
the old ones?  Use them for secondary winches!  I like to use secondary
winches in the aft end of the cockpit, because the mainsail trimmer can do
double duty of spinnaker grinder when the breeze is up. As far as the sheet
cutting across the cockpit: In light air my trimmer sits on the low side at
the shrouds, weight in a good place and the sheet runs straight up the deck;
In Medium and Heavy air my trimmer stands at the  mast or the high side
shrouds, Weight in a good place and the sheet typically cuts across the
companionway, well out of my way when steering from the high side.  The guy
is lead forward to the primary winch with one wrap left on the secondary
winch, this moves the guy trimmer forward in the boat to give the mainsail
trimmer more room to work and improve weight placement.

Also, I am a big believer in having at least one wrap on the winch no matter
how light the wind.  This is the most efficient way to transfer the sheet
shock load to the boats forward motion.  I don't believe a ratchet block is
sufficient for this purpose for our boats.

Fair Winds

Larry Morris
Solstice #501


-----Original Message-----
From: public-list-bounces at alberg30.org
[mailto:public-list-bounces at alberg30.org]On Behalf Of J Bergquist
Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2003 11:46 AM
To: public-list at alberg30.org
Subject: [Alberg30] secondaries vs cabintop winches


Dear List-

Here's yet another question in J's series of deck layout inquiries. I
hope you're not sick of them yet.

I have only primary winches. I'm getting some new ones, but I'll still
only have primaries.

I am wondering how best to lead my spinsheets forward to the trimmer. It
seems like most people are using secondaries. However, I dreamt up
another scenario, and I want to run it by you and see what you think.

1. Turning blocks on the transom corners, all the way aft.
2. Ratchet blocks mounted on deck just inside the toerail, just forward
of the primaries.
3. Cabintop winches mounted inside the handrails, and near the aft end
of the house.

When the breeze is light, ratchets turned off. As the breeze comes on,
ratchets turn on. When it really starts to blow, ratchets on plus the
cabintop winch. Guy would always go to the primary, with a crew sitting
next to the winch and trimming. Sheet trimmer always stands on the
windward side deck so he/she can see the luff of the sail.

This arrangement would prevent the sheet from being led through the
cockpit and getting in the helmsman's way, because it would run across
the boat pretty far forward (like over the bridge deck). It might be in
the way if somebody needs to go through the companionway, but this seems
less important than being in the helmsman's way. Also, the cabintop
winches could double as halyard and/or reef winches if I ever lead those
aft.

Drawbacks are:

1. Have to get cabintop winches.
2. Have to drill holes in cabintop for said winches (and I hate drilling
holes in my boat).
3. Would need to mount winches on pedestals to get them high enough for
sheet to lead fair from ratchet block to the winch without rubbing on
top of the companionway rail (which is bronze on my boat, and might
cause significant chafe...).

The alternative would be to mount secondaries and just deal with the
sheet leading across the cockpit.
Second alternative would be to just use primaries as the spinnaker winch.

Actually, I am probably going to do the second alternative for this
season, but I thought I'd ask  the question to see if anybody uses a
setup as I described, and whether it seems to work well, or if anybody
has other good ideas.

Ciao,

J Bergquist
Calliope #287

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