Winch Handles and Keeping Them Aboard

[jimisbell]

I have 5 winches on the GS 36 and I also need a handle for the roller boom furling. The sheet and halyard winches are all standard and use a relatively cheap handle. BUT the roller boom furling handle is unique and expensive AND is usually on the foredeck in the worst of weather. I dont want it going overboard. Durring bad weather is NOT the time to loose tha abillity to put a reef in the main. I have considered wrist straps but cannot conceive of a way to fasten them so that they wont wrap up when you are trying to do multiple turns.

Any one solved this problem??

[Zednotzee]

I know what you mean as I have a similar setup. Damned if I can think of a surefire solution though.

[jimisbell]

One solution would be to require a $100 deposit from an crew member that will be likely going forward. Another would be to stop using crew that I shanghai in the wharf bars and have hangovers in the morning.

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by jimisbell

BUT the roller boom furling handle is unique and expensive AND is usually on the foredeck in the worst of weather. I dont want it going overboard.

Any one solved this problem??

Yep

[jimisbell]

OK, what did I miss in your post? Or are you just toying with me

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by jimisbell

OK, what did I miss in your post? Or are you just toying with me

LOL,
Once I got away from mono's and into sailing catamarans I miraculously stopped losing winch handles over the sides as the sides were 10 plus feet away from the rig.

Now I am doing a power catamaran I suspect I will lose even less winch handles

[maxingout]

All of my winch handles are two splash handles.

The first splash is the winch handle going overboard. The second splash is the crew member diving to retrieve it.

[bewitched]

I put one of those rubber / plastic winch handle pockets behind the mast (below the gooseneck) and then a bit of bungy tied round the mast. Drop the winch handle in and bungy over the handle to hold in place. Has stayed there 3 years and has pulled through at least two knockdowns that I can remember

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by jimisbell

I have 5 winches on the GS 36 and I also need a handle for the roller boom furling. The sheet and halyard winches are all standard and use a relatively cheap handle. BUT the roller boom furling handle is unique and expensive AND is usually on the foredeck in the worst of weather. I dont want it going overboard. Durring bad weather is NOT the time to loose tha abillity to put a reef in the main. I have considered wrist straps but cannot conceive of a way to fasten them so that they wont wrap up when you are trying to do multiple turns.

Any one solved this problem??

Hummm! I didn't see anything about a crew member?

I lost one for the windlass. And now I use a wrist strap. In dive shops you can get accessory straps for ones wrist for flashlights and such. Attach the end to the small part of the rotating handle and double secure it with tape. The loop can go around the wrist and tighten up with the spring lock.

E.G. Scuba Diving Equipment from Mike's Scuba - Scuba Diving Accessories - 10,000 items to choose from. Oceanic Scuba, Zeagle Scuba, OMS Scuba, for all your scuba diving needs!

[fishwife]

Electric winches

[Blue Stocking]

My boat still has the original cast bronze, worm gear, roller reefing gear fitted by Cheoy Lee in 1965, with a unique shape and 20mm square drive. I made a free-floating tab washer type of thing, out of a lightweight stainless tang, which can rotate on the handle grip bolt, and light weight bungy from a second hole in the tab, with an eye to secure on an un-used cleat on the mast. Works for me.

[Waterborn]

I always keep a couple of extra winch handles so Iwhere I know exactly where they are... at the bottom of Lake Superior.

[jimisbell]

Several great ideas there. I will be trying the wrist strap to the non rotating wooden part of the handle to see how that works out.

I liked the idea of a spare pair where you knew exactly where they were, on the bottom. But how about one spare one that can be used to beat the crew member that dropped the first one.

Thanks for all the posts.

[blahman]

Here is how we store our winch handle at the mast:

Picasa Web Albums - Aaron

As for using, my suggestion is to "hold on". I would never want someone to attach their hand or wrist to a winch handle because if the winch breaks and free-spins (I've seen it three times), or perhaps was just serviced and the pawls replaced incorrectly, then your wrist is in the line of fire!

Use locking winch handles. If you don't have them, tie a small piece of bungy with a slipping hitch to the top of the drum of your winch, attaching a small snap-clip to the other end. Make it very short, so short that when you put the winch in its socket and pull the bungy out and around the handle, clipping it back to itself, that it "pulls" the handle into the socket. Also, if it does come out, the bungy should hold it close.

Just don't attach your body to the handle. That's like tying a jib sheet to your hand to make sure it doesn't unreave when you tack!

Good luck!
Aaron

[jimisbell]

The handle I am talking about a wrist strap on is not a "winch" handle it is the main boom furling handle. It cannot break and spin. So it would be perfectly safe to have strapped to the wrist. My halyard winches are in the cockpit and use a locking handle so I am not worried about them. Besides, in looking at my winches, a broken pawl would allow the winch drum to spin, but not the handle socket. If a pawl failed the handle socket would be disconnected from the drum and the drum would then spin. So I see no danger there.