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Self Tailing Winches

timday5

Member II
ST Winches

My '76 E27 has self tailing winches (at least I think they are... there is "groove" at the top of the winch into which you can place the line for the winch to hold it). Maybe it's because the PO used 1/2" or 5/8" line instead of 3/8" for the sheets, but it seems pretty hard to break the sheet off of the winch during a tack. With a non-ST winch, I used to just pull the sheet straight up; with these I have to, sort of, unwrap and then ease the sheet. It would not surprise me if my technique is deficient. Of course it's me, not her...

BTW, I bought my boat on e-bay - someone had donated her to the Southern Maryland Sailing Foundation and they used ebay for the auction. Apparently the SMSF board members pre-screened her before they prior to being offered her. She did need a lot of cleaning, and we have stripped the upholstery and carpet (we were going to remodel anyway), but underneath she is sound.

I don't know about other such organizations, but possibly a non-profit sailing organization has better motives for providing accurate descriptions than some of the brokers you have been dealing with. I could not have afforded either a major project boat (time) or a perfect/new boat (money).
 

Randy Rutledge

Sustaining Member
The unwinding is the payback for the self tailing. Everything you gain you lose something. The stripper or whatever that arm is called prevents a clean vertical pull off the winch. If it is your technique then we have the same problem. For racing in heavy air I prefer a crew member tailing and standard winches and a horn cleat to hold the sheets.

3/8 is as large as you need for sheets, ½ would only be needed in heavy air and for hand comfort only. In the light air I sail in at times 3/8 sheets sag.
 
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