Life, love and Lewmar winches

by Helen Hopcroft on 3 Nov 2006 Life is short. It should be spent sailing, eating nice food and having sex.

Unfortunately, it is often wasted on defrosting home brand macaroni cheese, choking down charred leftovers and trying to talk one’s partner into a more romantic frame of mind.

The pressure to earn an income takes over. You would rather be sailing, but instead you end up working to pay your mortgage. The boat sits on its mooring and rots. You ask yourself how to improve this dastardly situation?

I can’t help with the home brand macaroni, mortgage or the romance, but I can make some suggestions about the boat.

When you have limited time to sail, you want every sail to be perfect. In an ideal world, everything on a boat would work well all the time. The only way to approach this ideal is to have a decent quality, well maintained vessel fitted out with good quality gear. As you may be sailing shorthanded or with inexperienced crew, you need things set up so it’s simple and easy to control the boat.

Small details make the difference between a good day on the water and something becoming a hassle. Well designed gear helps keep everything running smoothly. Good design helps minimise the natural human ability to stuff things up.

One piece of equipment that can make the difference between a good day’s sail and a slightly irritating one is decent winches. The other day I decided to be nice and take my 80 year old neighbour out for a sail on his Norwalk Island Sharpie. The wind was fair, the sky a perfect blue. Lake Macquarie was at its most beautiful. The neighbour and I chatted about boats, politics and music. He told me about his former life as a pharmacist dishing out carefully regulated doses of methadone to junkies.

It would have been a good day out, except the halyard kept slipping on the drum of the self tailing winch. It took me much longer than it should have to get the mainsail up. In the end, I gave up on the winch and got my elderly neighbour to tail for me.

By the time I got it up, I was red in the face and ratty and my neighbour was ready to go home. It wasn’t a big problem. It was a small problem that could be easily fixed and the boat would be nicer to sail as a result.

It’s worth noting that the interesting thing about large problems is that they are usually a heap of small ones that have accumulated.

Winches make a difference to the amount of pleasure you get out of a day’s sailing. If you’re mathematically inclined, you could work out an equation to describe this phenomenon.

If winch quality equals X, and pleasure in sailing equals Y; then X= 2Y minus the cost of the winches. Winch handles that snap unexpectedly or don’t fit the winch securely are both things that can turn a day out into a headache. The other problem is the old winch handle lost over the side trick.

As this is largely the result of human error (duh!) there’s only so much winch handle manufacturers can do to minimise this problem. However a good designer will look at the way the handle fits in the hand, and do everything possible to make it ergonomic, efficient and easy to grip. So if it’s a good handle, and you lose it over the side, you have only yourself to blame.

Lewmar is well known for making good quality winches and handles. Their new 'One Touch' winch handle has just been short listed for a design award in the Marine Equipment Trade Show (METS) in Amsterdam. METS is the largest exhibition of leisure marine trade equipment in the world. The winner of the design award will be announced on the 14th November. Winning the coveted design award would be important to the company and to its product profile. The design award is judged on the basis of overall design, functionality, originality and price/quality ratio. Lewmar describes the handle as being stylish, powerful and easy to use with a rapid and simple winch entry and exit locking device activated by a full handle length lever. They say it is the first real innovation in lock in winch handle design since the 1970's.

If you happen to be in Amsterdam between the 14th and 16th of November 2006, and if you are not passed out on the floor of one of the local cafes, you may like to have a look at the comprehensive range of Lewmar products. They are in METS stall number 01.361 at the Europa Complex.

METS have also short listed Lewmar for the design of their new flush deck hatch. The hatch is designed to be mounted into a moulded deck recess. The surface is completely flush with the deck and it has a modern frameless appearance. The company describes the look as being super yacht styling at a fraction of the price. If you’re sick of tripping over your hatch fittings, this could be the product for you.

What is interesting about the Lewmar range is the amount of thought they have put into the look of their equipment. There is a lot of attention to detail. Simple items such as winches are available in 9 different finishes. These include standard chrome, bronze and grey anodised alloy. So you can have a good quality winch that also looks pretty. If you’re the type that obsesses over small details, you’ll be pleased to hear that the handles are not only extremely functional but good looking. The racing handles are built out of light weight injection moulded glass nylon and the locking mechanism is built from durable brass.

Lewmar is heavily involved in the match racing circuit. Sailor Katie Spithill manages the marketing for Lewmar Australasia’s new Sydney office. Katie has just risen to fourth place in the World Women’s Match Racing Ranking. It is her first time in the top five, and is largely as a result of her win in the Santa Maria Cup earlier this year.

Sail World recently interviewed Katie to discuss the companies’ expansion in Asia and Australia.

‘It is an exciting new opportunity for us. Lewmar has never had a head office on this side of the world for the Australasian region so it should be quite exciting? We have three distributors in Australia, one in New Zealand and distributors that we work with in India, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Philippines, Japan, Taiwan and China.

‘We are heavily involved with supporting these distributors with product, technical service and marketing.

‘Our product range is large. We’ve got anchoring systems, hatches and ports, windlasses, bow thrusters, winches, hardware and steering? We’ve got the complete package which is a major advantage for a lot of boat owners. Our gear is superior in price and quality.

Carl Crafoord, Managing Director of Lewmar Navtec Australasia, expanded on the company’s distribution and growth plans.

‘Within the Lewmar framework our mission is to assist in turning Lewmar into a truly global business the plan is to have a subsidiary in this part of the world; Australia, New Zealand and Asia, so there is an office open with inventory and technical help in our time zone. We are sourcing product and assisting with manufacturing in Asia and we are involved in sales and marketing and distributor support.

‘Because some of our equipment is being made in Asia we accept it here directly and distribute it in our region here rather than it going to England and back We are also sharing inventory with the US and Europe. We are part of a global team sharing and balancing inventory from around the planet, placing it where the demand is and maintaining good inventory turn.’

Next time you are out on your boat, look at the winches with a critical eye. Are they well maintained, decent quality and properly positioned?

Is your winch handle easy to use, light weight and reliable? Is it pretty? If not, consider having a look at Lewmar's range.