Hello again,
I'd like to replace my Lewmar 43 winches with a bit more power and self tailing. Winching in the 150 jib is quite a chore with what I have.
What are your experience and models with upgrades? lewmar, Harken, Anderson, others?
Were the Lewmar 43's original on an earlier 365 (#67)
Thanks and good sailing all!
Lola,
Sea Dragon came with Lewmar 42's (too small for us old guys) so I upgraded to Lewmar 48ST winches... What a great addition (see below). It is important to note that Sea Dragon is a Cutter so the largest headsail we fly is a 110... If more is needed, the cruising chute comes out. So for us the size 48s work well. It would be nice to get the input from others with larger headsails on their winch sizes.
http://www.sailingseadragon.com/Winches.htm (http://www.sailingseadragon.com/Winches.htm)
I also added two Lewmar 16ST aft to make handling the furling lines and preventer lines on Sea Dragon...
I stayed with Lewmar because of their reputation and ease of assembly and disassembly (maintenance). With that said, any of the companies you named build a nice winch and I a sure you would be happy with any.
Garner
I too was thinking of going to larger primary winches, but because I have the cutter option on my ketch, I opted for a high cut jib at 115% this winter. Dragging a 150 in was bad news especially with small kids aboard and a wife that does not like to spill her wine. I am now on hold to see what the small headsail does for the winch problem. The loading was not that bad unless it was blowing stink, it was the miles and miles of jib sheet that did not allow a running start as the boat tacked.
If I went, I was looking at 48ST Lewmars. My boat has 43 Lewmars from the factory in 1976. I just upgraded my #16 Lewmar main halyard winch to a #16 Lewmar self tailer. This I believe will be a big safety improvement as I will not have to crank, tail and hold on with only two hands.
I am also considering a #8 or #16 to assist my roller furling system out back. I am also waiting to determine if the smaller headsail has eliminated that problem.
Hope this helped... Good Sailing... Dale Tanski