One of many upgrades on the to-do list
Remember this post about electric winches? Well, Michael ultimately decided to purchase the electric winch upgrade kit and now that we’re on the dock at Port Louis Marina, we’re ready to begin putting the pieces together. We have our electrician friend Simon lined up to make the connections but Rebecca and I will be the ones running the large wires to power the winch. We also have a rigger from coming out today to look at rerouting the main halyard back to the helm. This is just one of many projects that we have on our to-do list for the next month.
Two upgrades that will result in, “Why didn’t we do that sooner?” moments! 🙂
🙂
The why is always MONEY!
It would cost you a lot less than half the money to make use of an electric capstan than an electric winch.
In single handle sailing a cat rigged ( one large back sail with no front sails) Nonsuch 22, (Nonsuch 22 Blueberry.blogspot.com) this makes much more sense.
Easing and trimming the main halyard is easily accomplished from the cockpit with the tiller between my knees, with the capstan controlled with a foot switch on the cockpit floor.
What are you calling a capstan, John, and how does it differ from a winch?
You will love it! Best upgrade I made to our cat. Also ran the main halyard back to the cockpit. Mine was simple, just added a block at the mast base and added a Spinlock clutch for the line alongside the ones for the headsail.
Happy to offer any advise.
Cheers,
CJ
One of today’s jobs is dealing with that halyard.
Off-topic, but now that you’re back in Grenada, have you been to visit ZTC?
I’m curious how the humidity-control method worked out. I suspect that the amount of moisture absorbant material that you left on-board was more than sufficient for the task, but living on the coast of Florida, I’m just curious how well it worked.
Dave
Only briefly and not yet inside.
I will apologize in advance for the dumb question, but is what’s the difference between a captsan and a winch? Is it only the plane with vertical for captsan vs. horizontal for the winch?
According to wikipedia it is as you describe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capstan_(nautical)). To me though, and I may very well be wrong, a capstan is for dealing with lines (like a sheet winch) regardless of its orientation. Some anchor windlasses, like the one on One Love, have both a gypsy which deals with chain and a capstan to deal with rode. In this case, the capstan is horizontal.