WA
1109 posts
i need a mast winch asap,. just wondering where to get them, i cant get enough down haul and my sails, (newer ones) with out a big fight and i am sick of spending ages riging up. i tried the one that was in the buy&sell section, but it has been sold. and another thing how much are they roughly ??
WA
1109 posts
well i have a down haul tool,. but have you ever had a brand new sail. and you cant get that extra downhaul how pissed off you get, thats what i get, i can never get the last few cm's
WA
23685 posts
Use less downhaul.... it's the new black
WA
4169 posts
I've had a long term project to build a better downhaul winch. My latest prototype is like a giant nutcracker. Used in reverse. It's lever arms are 75 cm long and the rope is pulled at 15 cm from the fulcrum. ie. It's a 5:1 pulling advantage and you use it a la Tarzan as shown on the Tarzan's Grip glue tube. It's made out of wood, the fulcrum is a heavy duty gate hinge. It also has a deck pulley ~$15 and a $5 cleat.
It'll downhaul anything, wouldn't say it's better than the regular winches yet but it's evolving.
235 posts
"Less downhaul is the new black." Nice!
The commercially available cranks (I use Chinook's) are well worth the money. Not just for getting those last few cm of downhaul, but more importantly because they make fine tuning much easier, particularly for race sails. When tuning is easy you tune more precisely. The cost of the winch, against the cost of all your sails and the value of those sails being dialed in, is negligible.
NSW
1282 posts
Hi Jordo
I got one mail order from surf sail (I think) in WA. It cost me just under $100 and I ordered it online.
SA
1160 posts
wat about them north rachet xt model extensions. i got one and there sick! make life so much easier but there a wee bit $$$$$$. well worth the extra cash tho!
WA
3183 posts
You shouldn't need a winch for wave sails, if you have an eye instead of a pulley system on your sail for the downhaul rope, then maybe invest in a hook pulley for the eye.
instead of having the sail nearly touching the cleat....make your extension a little longer, this might also help too.
BTW Popeye Bluejuice just wraps the rope round his hand a couple of times......
WA
280 posts
Isn't that what everyone else does ?
Just looked at maps. Game On! Mr windy (by the way good to see you've passed through you anti christ phase)
SA
924 posts
I think that if you pull the downhaul on as tight as you can, then go to the outhaul and pull that as hard as you can, then go back to the downhaul you can get much more on after having more outhaul. Then once you got it just loosen the outhaul a touch.
Bubs
VIC
633 posts
yeah bubs is right. the outhaul bends the mast more making downhaul easier.
WA
1109 posts
yeah we try'd doing the outhaul trick but it didnt work, but we havea downhaul winch now and it does the trick well
NSW
1731 posts
Are we talking race sails here? I don't know of any wave sails that need that much downhaul :o I just use the spreader bar on the harness :) My previous Norths were really light on the DH (and they had an eye), current Ezzy's not too bad either. Could be way off but are you running the right stiffness masts?
WA
1109 posts
im talking about a 2007 6.3 super freak on a old sdm stiff mast. not ideal for the sail but it gets it done. and the winch we made, but its "top secret" according to my dad. but its a very easy simple design. done on a laith
VIC
2424 posts
Buy a winch , you will never look back . Since I,ve got one I hate manually downhauling , it seems primitive , Ha .
The chinook ones are fine , some of the others ( the black ones , don,t know what brand) are dodgy . Mine is 5 years old , been downhauling up to 12 meter formula sails and still going strong . Best 80 bucks I ever spent .
Most shops should have them .
Get one and your back will love you forever .
