Well as you guys know I'm no keelboat sailor. I have been looking at boats lately and why are there so many winches 2 makes sense 4 makes sense. But why do some s&s 34s have like 8 winches. Bit overkill don't you think?
Regards Mick
Different era mate. 8 was not many for a 3/4 tonner
IOR . Photo of SS34 flying spin and blooper . Plus probably twin track on
forestay so when changing sails you drop one after you have raised the other. Now count winches for halyards and sheets needed to fly sails not including outhaul on boom , reefing .Oh I'm sure I've forgotten a lot.
Also a lot of cam cleats etc. you take for granted now we're not around then.
Select to expand quoteShanty1 said..
Well as you guys know I'm no keelboat sailor. I have been looking at boats lately and why are there so many winches 2 makes sense 4 makes sense. But why do some s&s 34s have like 8 winches. Bit overkill don't you think?
Regards Mick
Most of the ss34s I've seen usually have six winches,,, two primary sheet winches, two spinnaker sheet winches and two halyard winches (either on the mast or the coach house top.)
Some may have another one on the boom for outhaul and reefing ,,, and maybe one down on the traveller for the mainsheet but in most cases, these last two are taken care of easily with reduction blocks.
Select to expand quoteJethrow said..
You can never have too many winches! 
Totally correct. There should be at least one wench in every bunk in a yacht.
Select to expand quotecisco said..Jethrow said..
You can never have too many winches!
Totally correct. There should be at least one wench in every bunk in a yacht.
And one in the galley.
This old S/H girl has 12 that I can see.
notice that she has only horn cleats set up behind each winch .
The sheet or halyard initially stays wrapped around winch so cannot be used for another.
I would guess ,unless updated, any IOR racer built before 1980 would have multiple .
www.sydneymarinebrokerage.com/listing/s-s-34-2
Yeah, I was looking online for a photo of "Inch by Winch" but couldn't find a good deck one so settled for the one above.
On a race yacht 6 winches is pretty much the minimum if you have plenty of clutches and cleats. Usually will have twin spinnaker halyards, Twin headsail halyards. Spare main sail halyard. Mainsail reefing lines will need dedicated winches. Large yachts will often have a winch for the mainsail sheets.
Select to expand quotelydia said..
Pre clutch days
Simple
This!!
Plus pre decent rope/clutch combos for the loads required and modern races yachts with halyard locks.
Raced on Mirrabooka (Swan 49) and she had;
2 x primaries with coffee grinders
2 x runners
1 x mainsheet
2 x traveller
4 x halyard (dedicated main and genoa)
So that's 11 where as a TP52 has 7-8
You can have too many wenches on a boat but never too many winches.
Over wenched and under winched again!
Yes the days before jammers etc.
my UFO 34 has 8
2 x jib in the cockpit
2 x spinnaker in the cockpit
2 x halyards on the cabin for halyards running back to the cockpit ie main, reefing etc
2 x halyards near the mast for halyards that do not run back to the cockpit ie spinnaker, spare main & jib etc
Ilenart :)
My Currawong came with 11 winches. It seemed really cool when I bought the boat, but two are already off and I plan to remove another 4. I guess in the old days when there were no clutches each line had its own winch.
I have only used 5 and could easily make do with 4. (Two on the deck and two cockpit. The 5th is handy for the spinnaker halyard but not essential). We race with spinnakers and cruise with twin headsails.
What is cool about my layout is that I can run any sheet to any winch. I have twin line reefing. I can run all the deck lines to either starboard or port deck winches. I don't have clutches on the 3rd reef lines and the outhaul.
A
Select to expand quotetarquin1 said..
You can have too many wenches on a boat but never too many winches.
Over wenched and under winched again!
Yes the days before jammers etc.
If every bunk has a wench I think it is only fair that every wench has a jammer.
Things are better in the post-clutch era. I can remember getting hit with a large over-the-shoulder bag and I'm only guessing there was a housebrick in there.
Select to expand quoteAndrew68 said..
The single handed mini's seem to get by with no more than three winches !
They seem to have made up for the lack of winches with underwater appendages!
That's not what I call a tender boat.
