Winch Upgrade on 35-3

Starting to think about replacing the Barient winches on my boat, starting with the cabin top mainsheet/halyard winch. Can any 35-3 owners who've done this, let me know what brand and size winch they switched to? I've been doing my research but always love to get the first hand experiece form you folks.

We'd like this mainsheet winch to be stronger that the Barient that's there now, the model number escapes me right now. But we don't want it so large that the line angle changes radically. Thanks in advance for any pointers.

Not sure how close the comparison is, and you may have a bit more sail area than my O-34 --

Our boat has a pair of Lewmar ST30's on the housetop for all the halyards.

If we ever change winches... I would go up a size or two. Reason is that with, say, a size 40 or 44, it would be possible for my spouse to winch me up the mast. Cannot do that with the present 30. (She is petite, and I am... um... not...)


IMHO, this is a situation where larger is, indeed, better.

Good luck,
Loren

Winch Upgrade

We switched 2 of our 3 cabintop winches to Andersen 28sts (the third we don't use enough to justify the upgrade). We also switched our primaries to 52sts. The new winches are not only a little more powerful, but they are much smoother (more efficient?) than the Barients. The difference is that my wife can now easily handle the winches if needed as the wind picks up, and I can handle them single-handed more easily if I'm out by myself.

As to line angles, the Andersen 28st drum is a little lower than the barient selftailing that was on the mainsheet, so its a little better. The drum is a little higher than the non-selftailing winches. Drum/base size is approximately the same. On our boat at least, we improved the line angles a bit by reinstalling the winches in slightly different places.

I've always been a fan of Andersen winches, but looking at current prices, they've shot up a good 15% since we bought them last year... blame it on the falling dollar. I found the best prices at Sailnet and Riggingonly, although last year my local chandlery surprisingly and soundly beat them both.

Winch Upgrade

Loren and Cory-
Thanks for the feedback. It's interesting that the Lewmar 30ST and the Andersen 28ST are the winches I've been considering.
Loren, I agree that bigger is better and will definitely think about that and how to make it work, as space is limited on the cabin top inside the dodger.
Cory, I've had my eye on Andersen winches for a while and regret waiting, now that prices have gone up. Not sure that it's worth the premium since Lewmars are good quality winches as well.