She’s electric

Gone are the days when sheeting in meant half a dozen burly men rushing to the quarter and heaving on a rope. Handybillies and deadeyes equally belong to the pages of history, or at least the rigging of historical craft. Now all you really need is a few decent winches on the coachroof and the coaming. And although this is quite mature technology these days, there have been a welter of small improvements over the years which make the job easier or safer or better connected.

If you never quite got far enough down your list of spring fettling jobs to reach winch maintenance, or you fancy a bit of electrical assistance, then you might be eyeing the new winch market with a degree of trepidation. As with all bits of large boat hardware, the simplest course of action is simply to buy a new version of whatever you had before. That way you can be sure that sheeting angles will match and the all-important holes for fixing the winch to the boat should line up perfectly.

But buying a new winch is also an opportunity to upgrade, upsize or switch to electric. Perhaps something with a bit more grunt would