On Sun, 24 Aug 2008 17:13:14 -0400, jeff wrote:

Funny! I didn't think your boat had sails big enough to require winches.

The fastest sailboats of all are the one ton, thirty eight foot, A
scows. They do better than 25. They don't have winches, with a crew of
four young and beefy guys. They daycruise eight, there is room. What
the daysailers mostly have are winch drums that have a rachet, one way
only, but no crank. We used to call them rachet winches. Of course,
winches have a horizontal drum, containing the anchor rode, or a
towing wire, sometimes thousands of feet long. Capstans are what
sailboats have, although nobody calls them that. Trailers have
winches, often multispeed. We use winches to haul boats up the beach.
Some have an three speed automobile transmission.

Casady