New Electric Winch

[Loren Beach]

I was surfing a UK digital boating magazine and found an ad for this winch.

E40i : Seldén Mast AB

www.seldenmast.com

The compact design with the motor internal to the device is pretty amazing, at least to me it is.

http://www.seldenmast.com/files/597-470-E.pdf

 

[1911tex]

Great video. The concern I would have (maybe no valid concern)... Example: Raising the main halyard or pulling any sheet, there may be a jam of some sort (twisted slug, tangled line, dirt, etc.)....does the the electric winch automatically sense this and stop as you would if by hand? Does it automatically back off the torque (tension) enough if there is abnormal resistance, so the problem can be resolved without manually pushing (releasing) a switch?

 

[Loren Beach]

Agree with your concern. Any DC winch device would seem to have the same potential shortcoming, i.e. tearing a sail or slug attachment if not monitored very closely during the hoist.

Last year a friend with a powerful DC angle-drill motor hoisted me up our mast, and we were were really careful about ANY possible hesitation or jamming during the hoist. It was powerful and fast. Way cool, actually. Another guy run a spare safety halyard for me.

For a very tall rig, you could have someone calling out the 'stops' along the way!

 

[eknebel]

The new lewmar els control box gives some load feedback, slowing as load increases, and hopefully tripping before the rig is pulled down. I have used them for a couple seasons, and even newbie crew learn the loading sounds pretty quickly. I put a 10 ft longer halyard so it can be run back to the primary electric winches, works really well when going up the mast.

 

[Christian Williams]

Do you have primary electric winches or did I read that wrong?

Here's the E40i manual. The required bus is kinda daunting. https://www.mauriprosailing.com/mm5/Selden/images/pi/Tech/ManualSelE40i.pdf

 

[1911tex]

In my wildest thoughts...a sheet unknowingly tangled around a crew persons foot and before you can respond with a kill switch, the crew person is hanging by their foot upside down halfway up the mast??? Old school here...I like manual winches!

 

[eknebel]

Do you have primary electric winches or did I read that wrong?

You read correctly; just another adaptation to the Admiral's diminutive strength. Overkill? Absolutely yes, but trimming the 155% in 10 knots sure is easy. The ELS speed is 33ft/min at no load, so it is easily controlled by the switch that must be held down to power the winch. If one is feeling frisky, or racing, the winch handle is always ready to be pressed into service.

 

[Christian Williams]

I'm a fan of electric winches and would like to hear real world accounts of use and installation. Not many have them in our size range.

BY the way, the E40i has no winch handle backup. Selden suggests routing the line around the E40i "to a nearby manual winch." Hmmm.

 

[eknebel]

I did the install myself, which was a big project. It was paired with adding a starting battery, balmar alternator/regulator, and arc battery combiner, so it is kinda hard to say how long it took. I try not to dwell on the amount of time it takes on boat projects, as it seems to diminish my enjoyment of them.
The scariest part is cutting the 2 inch hole for the drive shaft of the winch. I hate making holes, especially big ones that are hard to hide. Planning the placement of the winch/motor to fit in the coaming was very tight and involved "flipping" the motor assy to fit on the port side. Lewmar tech support easily told me how to change the wiring to accomplish this. Making sure it would all fit was very, very tedious. Mock-ups before purchase and a few nightmares later, it all fit. The wiring for the lewmars is straightforward, large strippers and a good battery lug press are definitely worth it(i think it was 28 lug terminals).
The upgrade to self tailing was almost mystical, and the winches with the electric motor engaged makes crew volunteer to trim, just so they can push the button. As the ELS are not the fast racing model, we first tack normally, bringing the sheet across and bringing it tight by hand. When you would normally start using the handle, you push the button by the winch, and smile.