Electric winches

Manuals

5Modifications5 3Prev Next4

The Harken electric winches at the factory, still bubble-wrapped to protect them during shipment.
(2011-07-04 10:00:05 NIKON D7000 with a "18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6" lens. [f/4.0, 1/60s] ISO 220 Focus 3.16m)

As can be expected on a boat that can weigh almost 27 tons (60,000 pounds), the sails need to have a lot of area and consequently generate a lot of force to move her along. The sheets and halyards on Zanshin are high-tech Dyneema in order to cope with the heavy loads and the 4 winches need to be sized appropriately in order to allow the lines to be pulled tight. The two aft winches for the genoa sheets (and also for the gennaker/spinnaker sheets) are the really big ones - Harken 70.2 and the 2 forward winches are Harken 50.2 models. The number before the decimal denotes the mechanical advantage, 70:1 and 50:1 respectively and the 2 after the decimal means that they are 2-speed. Winches generally only turn in one direction (clockwise) but the handle can turn in either, by going one way the winch is in fast mode with much less power and is used for quickly pulling in lines that aren't too heavily loaded. Once the tension on the line becomes too much to easily continue, one turns the handle in the opposite direction and then the maximum mechanical advantage sets in and a lot of cranking barely moves the line - but it doesn't take that much work.

For this boat, with the ample 24V power available in the main battery bank, I decided to give in to temptation and get the upgrade to electric winches. Just the thought of merely pressing a button to pull the mainsail out and back in instead of having to winch like crazy (albeit only for a couple of seconds). I've never even touched an electric winch before so I'm rather excited to give this new stuff a whirl.

Electric two-speed Harken winches aboard Zanshin. (2014-02-16 09:25:57 NIKON D7100 with a "18.0-250.0 mm f/3.5-6.3" lens. [f/6.3, 1/800s] ISO 100)	Electric two-speed Harken winches aboard Zanshin. (2014-02-16 09:26:09 NIKON D7100 with a "18.0-250.0 mm f/3.5-6.3" lens. [f/6.3, 1/250s] ISO 100)	Electric two-speed Harken winches aboard Zanshin. (2014-02-16 09:26:21 NIKON D7100 with a "18.0-250.0 mm f/3.5-6.3" lens. [f/6.3, 1/250s] ISO 100)	Electric two-speed Harken winches aboard Zanshin. (2014-02-16 09:26:41 NIKON D7100 with a "18.0-250.0 mm f/3.5-6.3" lens. [f/6.3, 1/200s] ISO 100)
Mr. Winch in his shades about to sip on the happy hour libation in Great Harbour, Jost van Dyke (2013-02-12 17:14:37 NIKON D7000 with a "18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6" lens. [f/4.5, 1/80s] ISO 100 Focus 1.68m)