Any sailors out there (capstan winch)

[Raspy]

Steve,

You probably already know this, but when using a drum winch with rope, you throw several turns of line around the drum and control your pull by pulling on the end to tighten or loosen the turns as the drum turns at a constant speed. You have to tend it to make it work and you have to tie it off or somehow secure it to hold the load and coordinate that with shutting of the drum rotation . So you are busy with both hands while winching. It works well while pulling on a sheet to harden a sail because it works with rope and can be let go completely to drop sails when working with halyards. And most of the time, the winches are manual like the one you posted the picture of.

It's pretty exciting heeled over at 30 degrees, bashing to weather with spray everywhere and hardening a sheet with both hands while trying to stay aboard. The helmsman yelling to harden it another 4 inches as the boat repeatedly drops out from under you. Or to be up on the bowsprit at 3:AM as the weather builds. Someone on deck lets the halyard go and down comes the jib. The winches give you precise control and also let the lines go instantly, even in complete darkness while getting hosed down.

But puling a car onto a trailer, for instance, is different and works much better with a cable winch. They work with a button and no tailing and hold wherever you stop the drum. They also store the cable on the drum automatically. Much easier and safer in that kind of setting. But cable winches are impractical on boats because they are big, electric, not corrosion resistant and won't release fast.

 

[Steve_Miller]

Steve,

You probably already know this, but when using a drum winch with rope, you throw several turns of line around the drum and control your pull by pulling on the end to tighten or loosen the turns as the drum turns at a constant speed. You have to tend it to make it work and you have to tie it off or somehow secure it to hold the load and coordinate that with shutting of the drum rotation . So you are busy with both hands while winching. It works well while pulling on a sheet to harden a sail because it works with rope and can be let go completely to drop sails when working with halyards. And most of the time, the winches are manual like the one you posted the picture of.

It's pretty exciting heeled over at 30 degrees, bashing to weather with spray everywhere and hardening a sheet with both hands while trying to stay aboard. The helmsman yelling to harden it another 4 inches as the boat repeatedly drops out from under you. Or to be up on the bowsprit at 3:AM as the weather builds. Someone on deck lets the halyard go and down comes the jib. The winches give you precise control and also let the lines go instantly, even in complete darkness while getting hosed down.

But puling a car onto a trailer, for instance, is different and works much better with a cable winch. They work with a button and no tailing and hold wherever you stop the drum. They also store the cable on the drum automatically. Much easier and safer in that kind of setting. But cable winches are impractical on boats because they are big, electric, not corrosion resistant and won't release fast.

This is all interesting and exactly what I was looking for as input. I've never really used a winch before of this type and it does have its pluses and minuses. Thank you all for replying. I'm cheap by nature and have a lot of resources at my disposal.

Steve

 

[Garandman]

The other thing about a sheet winch is that it's probably geared too high for your intended purpose anyway.

Bigger boats have three speed winches and unless they are self-tailing, you need someone to pull on the line to keep it tensioned.

I got to grind the "Coffee Grinder" [pedestal winch] on a Taylor 47 once. Wuz fun. You grind from the center and there's a gearbox to change the output from side-to-side.

 

[pat32rf]

We used to use capstan winches for pulling large cable into conduit in the electrical trade. Think they were made by Ridgid Tools and we used 5/8" nylon rope. Then yellow polly rope came along. Not as nice to work with. The winches were 110v and slow but for what we needed worked great. One person could pull while three people fed and lubed the cable as it went into a 3" conduit.