Upgrade cabin-top winches and clutches on 32-3

[Prairie Schooner]

Based on the way we use the outboard starboard cabin top winch, it became an increasing priority to get the self-tailing function. Last Fall I picked up a pair of Lewmar 30ST winches for a song and am working on swapping out the old Barient 18s, same locations as in post #15, above.

I hadn't payed much attention to power ratios prior on this, thinking generically in terms of physical size. Apparently at some point winch manufacturers (some/all?) adopted the convention of model number being approximate to the highest power ratio (calculated with a 10" handle). For earlier winches an Enigma Device is required to decode the information. (thanks Loren and L-36) The Lewmars are a smidge more powerful than the old Barients.



*Extrapolating from Loren's equivalency chart, the Barlow 23 is ~ 13:1 / 33:1
- Key resources:
spec sheet - L-36 (also attached)
equivalency - Loren

Because the 18s were okay for power, I think these will be adequate. In an ideal world we'd want the 40s, but at $600 v $3200 (or even $1600 at BOGO) this was an easy compromise. We've got the most powerful winch on the mainsheet and I'm frequently glad for it. (The default setting is clutch open, but that's available for when we need the winch for the other two mainsail controls. It's not ideal, but has worked for us so far.) We can use the Barlow and spinn halyard if we need to hoist someone aloft. Line legend in post #15, above. However, if they need to go aloft to fix a deployed spinnaker, it's over to the L-30 with the auxiliary spinn halyard.

Visually, it will be a motley crew of winches up there, but, oh well.

I'll drill and pot the new holes and will be paying attention to the orientation of the drive gear and stripper ring. There's clearance for a 10" winch handle. But is there anything else I'm missing in placing these?

I posted some resources today, full credit to the originators of them.
- https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/resources/barient-catalog-older.228/
- https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/resources/barient-catalog-newer.229/

 

[Christian Williams]

You'll like the lewmars. Pay more attention to orientation than I did.

E381 - A New Winch--and Why

christian williams Thelonious II Lewmar winch installation. How to identify Lewmar winch output gear. Barient replacement winch. Mainsheet winch. Output Gear Drive gear00

ericsonyachts.org

 

[Prairie Schooner]

". . . the way we use the outboard PORT cabin top winch, . . ."
. . is what I should have written. Left/right, port/starboard, still somewhat elusive distinctions for me.

 

[Dave G.]

Visually, it will be a motley crew of winches up there, but, oh well.

So are you leaving the originals in place and adding a 3rd one ?

 

[Loren Beach]

Please note that we have a double bank of Lewmar D2 doubles in front of each (port and starboard) housetop ST winch, with the clutches aligned with the "line input side" of each winch. While it's true that many many older sailboats had a plethora of designated winches on their housetop, this was sometimes precipitated by reliance on full-crew multi-headsail racing for layout. (Especially buoy racing where a lot of line use and tension changes happened quick and quite often.)

As a case in point, there was a Cascade 29 foot sloop racing very successfully in the 70's - built out on a tight budget - with one (1) large winch at the back of the cockpit and several fixed and movable turning block positions to lead sheets and guys to it.
And then, there was the common layout in the IOR Mk1 and 2 era, with 2 to 4 winches on each side of the mast base and a separate halyard or other control line to each winch. (Sigh...)

Note B: ST winches are relatively less expensive nowadays, and reliable (!) clutch stoppers are pretty much taken for granted in the last decade. These trends have enabled some re-thinking of control lines/halyards.

Note C: The E-35-3 and 34-2 are both heavier designs than our smaller Olson and I would guess that the halyard and control line loads are likely higher. That's something to consider when planning to upgrade the housetop layout. (Strictly IMHO, however, and this opinion is only worth 2 cents with Friday discount.)

 

[Prairie Schooner]

So are you leaving the originals in place and adding a 3rd one ?

No, Dave. I was just trying to offer a size comparison. 2 Lewmars will replace the 2 Barients.

 

[Prairie Schooner]

Please note that we have a double bank of Lewmar D2 doubles in front of each (port and starboard) housetop ST winch, with the clutches aligned with the "line input side" of each winch. While it's true that many many older sailboats had a plethora of designated winches on their housetop, this was sometimes precipitated by reliance on full-crew multi-headsail racing for layout. (Especially buoy racing where a lot of line use and tension changes happened quick and quite often.)

As a case in point, there was a Cascade 29 foot sloop racing very successfully in the 70's - built out on a tight budget - with one (1) large winch at the back of the cockpit and several fixed and movable turning block positions to lead sheets and guys to it.
And then, there was the common layout in the IOR Mk1 and 2 era, with 2 to 4 winches on each side of the mast base and a separate halyard or other control line to each winch. (Sigh...)

Note B: ST winches are relatively less expensive nowadays, and reliable (!) clutch stoppers are pretty much taken for granted in the last decade. These trends have enabled some re-thinking of control lines/halyards.

Note C: The E-35-3 and 34-2 are both heavier designs than our smaller Olson and I would guess that the halyard and control line loads are likely higher. That's something to consider when planning to upgrade the housetop layout. (Strictly IMHO, however, and this opinion is only worth 2 cents with Friday discount.)

Note A:
The Peterson 34 I learned to sail on had just such a lavish winch farm. None of them were self-tailing, even in the cockpit. Foresail changes were common and we were always in spinnaker class. As you describe, a typical crew was 7-9. Somebody observing from the dock remarked, "Man, that's a very manual boat." The skipper cut his keel-boat teeth on Navy 44s and the '79 Fastnet, and if it was good enough for them, it was good enough for us, by grab.

Note B:
Yes, eleven clutches festoon the deck in front of these winches. Post 15 above. Very likely thanks to referencing your posts as part of my research back in '21.

Note C:
Indeed. If a pair of 40s were available at a similar discounted price, I'd have gone with them. However, if spending big bucks to upgrade winches, I'd replace the cockpit primaries first. With the exception of the mainsheet, the cabin top winches get relatively little use. The jib sheets are active all the time.