Which Winch?

[sagablu]

Good day all,

My 1976 Pearson 10M came with Lewmar 43 winches mounted for the Jib sheets. The boat also came with two Lewmar 40 self-tailing winches unmounted. Cannot believe the PO left them for what I paid for the boat. Anyway since I am often sailing singlehanded regardless of how many passengers I have, the self-tailing winches would be great.

So the question is will the difference in size make a significant difference? The only Genoa I have is 150%. I am strong but I don't want to kill myself either. How should I go with this?

[robwilk37]

swap em out, go sailing...

[LoudMusic]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEij2iolyWw

[Adelie]

If I understand the markings correctly the numbers are the mechanical advanatage so dropping from 43 to 430 might perhaps be noticeable but not significant unless you are already straining to grind in the genoa.

[44'cruisingcat]

The fact you can use both hands on the winch handle with the self tailers will more than make up for the slight loss of mechanical advantage.

[roverhi]

On my Pearson 35, went from Lewmar 40 equivalent winches to Lewmar 43 self tailers. Way better power for my sized boat. Really had to grunt to get get the final trim on the 135% genoa, now I just crank the sail in. Self tailers are really nice when single handing, though. You can crank in the winch one handed while doing other things like steering with the other hand. Non self tailers require one hand to crank and the other to tail. If I was a serious racer would go with non self tailing winches as they are way easier to pop the sheet off the top for quick tacks.

[sagablu]

Hello to the Community,

I thought I would report back in in the hope my experience would be helpful to someone else. So I changed the Lewmar 43's for the self tailing 40's. Its a bit harder to pull in the sheets but not significantly so. Worth it not having to tail the sheets, grind, and steer and the same time. What I do notice is that it takes a bit longer to get everything trimmed, not a huge deal but noticeable. Still happy I made the change.

Thanks all for your help.