Winch sizes?

[aj676]

After a 5 year refit we are back in the water, have finally sailed the boat again and are working on deck layout and sail handling equipment. We have done a split main sheet and after looking at the winch selection guides from several manufacturers it is unclear if there is a difference between monohull and multihull winch sizes. What winches do people have on similarly sized catamarans (we are a 42' cat) and do you find them adequate. We have a 475 sf main and a 375 sf headsail. We currently have poorly functioning Barient winches that we'd like to replace with something more current with better parts availability. We have been looking at Harken or Anderson but struggle with figuring out what size would be adequate. We are planning on 1 electric winch for raising the main, 2 manuals and a couple in addition at a later date for spinnaker/code sails.
Thanks for the input!

[Tupaia]

Slightly bigger sail plan than yours 43ft cat.


The mainsail does not require huge winches. I have a 63sm fully battened mainsail with a single halyard, ignoring any compression issues, a double halyard is not necessary if you have electric it just slows down the raising process. We have a Lewmar 46 electric that performs all the raising and reefing and is not over stressed. I can still raise the main manually if somewhat slowly if required.



The mainsheet and traveller both have quadruple lines and are handled by a 54 that is easily enough and could probably be smaller.



The jib is 43sm and is handled by two 54's. When really powered up these are probably close to my limit of operation.

[aj676]

Thanks Tupaia for the excellent info. Exactly the type of thing we're looking for....

I'm really surprised that there are no other 40-45' catamarans out there with winches though? =)