What is a winch? A self-tailing winch?
I was wandering through the West Marine catalogue and found a description of various winches. The fancy ones are over $ 800 each! So I asked Don Bingham, one of our readers, about the difference between a regular and a self-tailing winch. Fortunately, he came through: The difference between a regular winch and a self-tailing winch is a cleat. On a regular winch, the line (sheet or halyard) is wrapped around the drum and must be kept taught by pulling, or the line will slip back or off the drum. With a self-tailing winch, the line is turned around the drum-and passed through a ratcheted cleat which automatically pushes the line out. On a power winch, self-tailing is a convenience. On a manual winch-which requires at least one hand to crank-it frees both hands to crank or one hand to hang on with. For the solo or limited crew, the self-tailing model is considered by many a virtual necessity. And it’s cheaper, and more dependable, than electric or hydraulic power.
