Arm winch sheeting configuration
Posted: 02 May 2004, 17:16
I'm thinking that I will buy an arm winch for a new boat. The pictures I've seen of Lester Gilbert's and Trevor Binks's winches only show the winch area, and not how the system is rigged beyond that. Each of these has only one line attached to the winch arm, apparently run through a sheave to double the length of line pulled by the action of the arm. So this is a "sheet control line" in the parlance of the current Class Rules.
What I want to know here (separate post in the Rules forum) is how people with arm winches rig the stuff outside the hull. Is there simply a ring at the end of the sheet control line that pulls the sheet lines along, without a return line to pull up slack? Lots of arm winches are run this way, but there's a danger of fouling if the lines are left slack. On the other hand, it seems that it would be possible to rig a return sheet control line to the arm as well, that would pull in roughly what the sheet control line played out, and this loop could have an elastic portion, just like the drum winch configurations typically do.
Can someone using an arm winch spell out their configuration, or point me to a picture that describes it?
Thanks,
What I want to know here (separate post in the Rules forum) is how people with arm winches rig the stuff outside the hull. Is there simply a ring at the end of the sheet control line that pulls the sheet lines along, without a return line to pull up slack? Lots of arm winches are run this way, but there's a danger of fouling if the lines are left slack. On the other hand, it seems that it would be possible to rig a return sheet control line to the arm as well, that would pull in roughly what the sheet control line played out, and this loop could have an elastic portion, just like the drum winch configurations typically do.
Can someone using an arm winch spell out their configuration, or point me to a picture that describes it?
Thanks,