The name and email address I sent earlier was for the engineered Winchmate product. My primary winches are so big the drums had to be machined and threaded to accept the product (about $300 per drum). They work great.
Sent from my iPhone On Feb 26, 2024, at 11:14 AM, Riley Anderson via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote:
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. I think Barton makes an equivalent product. Barton Wincher.
--Dennis C. Touche' 35-1 #83 Mandeville, LA 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:
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Stu
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
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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
