I think most of the responders are confusing Barton's "Wincher" for the Winchmate product. These are very different products. The Wincher is a rubber jammer that slides over the top of the winch and is essentially useless, especially for large winches like Rick's. The Winchmate is a highly engineered, machined conversion kit that actually transforms your non self-tailing winch to a proper self-tailing winch. The price always hovered around $500 USD per winch, making them a financially viable alternative to replacing your winches. However, from my understanding, the Winchmate was a one-man operation that never took off (reasons unclear).
Two years ago, I contacted them to order the Winchmate for our big Barients but never heard back. I assume that the one-man shop has closed for good. Meaning there really is no good method for converting your big winches to self-tailing anymore. Historically, WestMarine (WorstMarine) has held a spring sale every year on Lewmar winches. Any Lewmar winch is buy one, get one free. In 2022, we swapped out our primaries and secondaries for $3300 total. That is a great price. I'm not sure if they are still offering this sale but I would start looking now. On Sun, Feb 25, 2024 at 10:23 PM Dennis C. via CnC-List < cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: > I think Barton makes an equivalent product. Barton Wincher. > > -- > Dennis C. > Touche' 35-1 #83 > Mandeville, LA > > On Sun, Feb 25, 2024 at 7:23 PM Rick Brass via CnC-List < > cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: > >> I was sort of planning to use part of this year’s tax refund to upgrade >> the Barient 32 primaries on Imzadi to selftailers using Winchmate >> conversion kits. The converted winches I’ve seen on other boats were very >> good, and selftailers would make single handing a lot easier, but I’ve >> always seemed to have other priorities in the past. >> >> >> >> But when I went to the website I had bookmarked to check the current cost >> and lead time, I find the website is down. A search turned up several sites >> with recommendations for the conversion kits, and a Winchmate Facebook page >> that doesn’t seem to have any recent information on it. >> >> >> >> Does anyone know if Winchmate is still in business? Or maybe has a new >> owner? Contact information? Or can recommend a source for these (or >> equivalent) conversion kits? >> >> >> >> Any information would be appreciated. >> >> >> >> Rick Brass >> >> Imzadi C&C 38 mk2 #47 >> >> la Belle Aurore C&C 25 mk1 #225 >> >> Washington, NC >> >> >> Please show your appreciation for this list and the Photo Album site and >> help me pay the associated bills. Make a contribution at: >> https://www.paypal.me/stumurray >> Thanks for your help. >> Stu >> > > Please show your appreciation for this list and the Photo Album site and > help me pay the associated bills. Make a contribution at: > https://www.paypal.me/stumurray > Thanks for your help. > Stu -- Fair winds, Dr. Charlotte Freeland & Dr. Riley Anderson SV Freight Train Old Saybrook, CT USA
Please show your appreciation for this list and the Photo Album site and help me pay the associated bills. Make a contribution at: https://www.paypal.me/stumurray Thanks for your help. Stu
