30 October 2006

Attention Jib Trimmers of Polka Dot Racing....

I have seen the pain as you try to trim that headsail to the lifelines in 20 knots of wind. I have grimaced with you as you vainly tried to winch, tail, and cleat simultaneously with only two hands. I have mockingly said, "no way I'm spending the lettuce on new winches until you get me 6 knots on port tack". But when even the mainsail trimmer says, and I paraphrase here, "dude, that looks like hard work", I know it's time.

So I present to you, Polka Dot Racing's Number 1 Jib Trimmer:


New Harken Self-Tailing Winches and a couple of new handles for good measure. If you don't get me 6 knots on port tack now, I'm going to start spending boat dollars on a fine tune adjustment for main trim. That will teach you.

3 comments:

Ken of Aventura said...

Have you looked into Winchers at West Marine. These handly blue plastic thingies attach to the old winches and at least make them pseudo trailing. Neat stop gap until you win the lottery so you can afford the real thing.

Anonymous said...

So what finish did you go with?? I prefer my Lewmar winches though.. .:D Winchers are a stop-gap measure and not to be relied on. You're much better off, if a bit poorer, to get real self-tailing winches. Just don't forget to adjust the tail piece to point into the cockpit so the line tails nicely.

EVK4 said...

I went with the cheapest black aluminum finish. Since it matches my mast and boom, yeah that's the reason.