Well its time to buy the winches for my boat, so I think its either
Harken or Lewmar. I know Lewmar winches and they are pretty
bulletproof I think, but Harken have always seemed the favoured for
racing, and I am a fan of their blocks. Has anybody got opnions on
Harken winch durability?? As they are a pretty big investment, I would
like anybodies opinions.

Ta in advance,

Pete

I can't say this is a truly authoritative comparison but speaking to several
designers and production builders I have narrowed it down some.

Lewmar has a better worldwide support network and offers deeper discounts to
production builders which makes them much more attractive to the mass
market. (If anything about sailing can be called "mass market".)

Harken winches are slightly more efficient at the price of slightly more
complexity. Harkens also have a small weight advantage.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"pete" wrote in message
...
Well its time to buy the winches for my boat, so I think its either
Harken or Lewmar. I know Lewmar winches and they are pretty
bulletproof I think, but Harken have always seemed the favoured for
racing, and I am a fan of their blocks. Has anybody got opnions on
Harken winch durability?? As they are a pretty big investment, I would
like anybodies opinions.

Ta in advance,

Pete

Might take a peek at Anderson winches, too.

"axolotl" wrote

Might take a peek at Anderson winches, too.

The Harken winches are made in Italy. Some years back, Harken got into the
winch business by buying out an Italian company called Barbarosa. They do
may make light weight aluminum winches, but so do Lewmar. Both also make
bronze cruising winches.

Lewmar through a series of take-overs ended up with Barlow, Barient and
maybe Arco and have a lot of experience to draw on.

But, Anderson do their own thing and make very nice S/S winches.

All three are good - I would look for the best price based on equal
capability.

pete wrote:

Well its time to buy the winches for my boat, so I think its either
Harken or Lewmar. I know Lewmar winches and they are pretty
bulletproof I think, but Harken have always seemed the favoured for
racing, and I am a fan of their blocks. Has anybody got opnions on
Harken winch durability?? As they are a pretty big investment, I would
like anybodies opinions.



The advice to look at Andersons is good.

I have heard a lot of horror stories about Lewmar's service
& support; never been there myself. OTOH I have experience
with Harken's excellent service and consider it a good
investment. Harken gear is more expensive but usually it is
the best in it's class.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

DSK wrote:

I have heard a lot of horror stories about Lewmar's service
& support; never been there myself. OTOH I have experience
with Harken's excellent service and consider it a good
investment. Harken gear is more expensive but usually it is
the best in it's class.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

I have experience with Lewmar winches and with their customer service.
I have one Lewmar 8, two VERRRRRY old Lewmar 16s two speed (which the
customer service told me should be in the Smithsomian) that the current
circlip for the modern 16 does not fit, and two 3 speed Lewmar 44s. I
am currently talking to customer service.

Customer service is excelent, they found a circlip for my ancient winch
and told me where go to get it. I contacted the people they
recommended and found I could get a "sample" since I only needed one.
Customer service is now recommending a spares kit for the 44s.

The winches are bulletproof.

Glenn Ashmore wrote:

I can't say this is a truly authoritative comparison but speaking to
several designers and production builders I have narrowed it down
some.

Lewmar has a better worldwide support network and offers deeper
discounts to production builders which makes them much more
attractive to the mass market. (If anything about sailing can be
called "mass market".)

Harken winches are slightly more efficient at the price of slightly
more complexity. Harkens also have a small weight advantage.

There's also Anderson (expensive) and Arco. We ended up with Harken. I
picked up three new self-tailers off E-bay and saved enough to buy the
fourth one new. I broke one of the top pieces ( dropped it during the
install) called the West Coast Distributor and had a new one in about
four days. I think the cost was about $15. Jim




--

jim.isbell wrote:
I have experience with Lewmar winches and with their customer service.
I have one Lewmar 8, two VERRRRRY old Lewmar 16s two speed (which the
customer service told me should be in the Smithsomian) that the current
circlip for the modern 16 does not fit, and two 3 speed Lewmar 44s. I
am currently talking to customer service.

Customer service is excelent, they found a circlip for my ancient winch
and told me where go to get it. I contacted the people they
recommended and found I could get a "sample" since I only needed one.
Customer service is now recommending a spares kit for the 44s.

The winches are bulletproof.


That sounds excellent, thanks for the first-hand info.

What kind of boat?

FB- DSK

DSK wrote:

What kind of boat?

FB- DSK

The winches are on a 1972 Gulfstar 36 Center Cockpit MS.