On our previous boat, the halyard winch (mounted on a vertical pad on the
mast) was not self tailing. It was tedious raising the main once you needed
the winch for the last 15 to 20 feet, because you had to stop winching and
grab the tail each 2 feet or so.

With a Wincher installed, I could winch without pause because every second
or third rotation of the handle, I would just slap a bit of the tail off the
drum without slowing down.

So for this application, I'd say the wincher was quite effective. That it
was mounted on the mast made it easier to do what I did, and that there was
so much line to be winched made it that much more valuable. I had
selftailers for primaries, so never had to consider a Wincher there.

"Gordon" wrote in message
news
Anybody tried these rubber things that go on regular winches to make them
self tailing?
Gordon