On 2008-08-23 03:21:35 -0400, Bruce in Bangkok said:

Given that many winches allow the pawls to be put in for either right or
left hand rotation what is the "standard"?

The line always goes around the winch clockwise. Move the turning block
if you can't clear the coaming doing that. You really don't want one
out of all the winches requiring backwards winding.

On a single-speed, crank clockwise to tighten.

Been too long since I had a multi-speed winch, so I can't comment on
that, but I would expect high-speed clockwise, then alternating
directions for second and third gear.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-à-Deux -- Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
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