winch
A winch ( english winch : "Morning Glory") is a mainly engaged in shipping common winch to transfer greater tensile forces. On ships it is part of the loading gear , in fishing it is used for the mechanical hauling in of nets .
sailing
When sailing , winches are used to operate sheets , halyards and other ropes . A previously more common name was winch .
In contrast to other winches, a line is not wound up on a winch, but simply wrapped around a drum with a few turns, which can be turned with a hand crank (also known as a winch handle ). The winch drum consists of a roughened or ribbed metal cylinder that can only be turned in one direction. In the other direction of rotation, pawls prevent the tensioned line from turning back the drum and releasing the line. The loose end of the line must be kept taut to prevent the line from slipping. The more wraps there are on the drum, the greater the frictional resistance and the less holding force that has to be applied. The Euler-Eytelwein formula describes this relationship. In the case of self-tailing winches ("self tailers"), a conically profiled pulley, which is grooved to increase friction, takes the lead and prevents the line from slipping. The cone also allows ropes of different diameters to be guided over the winch.
To pull the line tight, the loose end of the line can be pulled by hand as long as the load is not too high. The crank is used for high loads. For lowering (slacking off the line), the holding force at the loose end of the line is reduced in order to regulate exactly how much and how quickly the line is given.
Physically, a winch acts as a lever . The force increases in relation to the length of the winch handle to the diameter of the drum. With a longer crank, greater tensile forces can be achieved.
To further increase the torque , winches often have a built-in gear that reduces several turns of the crank to a smaller number of drum rotations. With two-speed winches, the transmission has two gear ratios . Depending on the direction of rotation of the crank, different rotational speeds and torques are achieved. On larger yachts , winches are driven by an electric motor or hydraulically .
Most winches are right-handed, so wind the line clockwise . On some, especially older, sailing boats, left-hand winches are used on the port side, so that the line coming from the front is first guided from the outside onto the winch drum on this side of the ship.
Some older winches have non-angled levers in place of the cranks.
Types
Halyard winch
Halyard , often as Mastwinsch attached to the mast of the ship, the operation of the act traps with which the sails are hoisted and tensioned.
Sheet winch
The sheet winch is used to operate the sheet to trim the sails . Simple, mostly crankless and gearless sheet winches ("creak bollards") are used on dinghies . (Coffee) grinders (English, actually "(coffee) mills") are large, column-mounted winches with double cranks on racing yachts, which are usually operated by two team members.
Anchor windlass
The anchor winch , also called capstan, is used to set and lift the anchor. A distinction is made between winches for chains and those for lines, as well as mechanically, electrically or hydraulically operated anchor winches.
Mooring winch
A sheet winch is usually used on small ships to tension (tighten) mooring lines . In commercial shipping and on traditional sailing ships thick coming ropes and steel cables used with large winches ( Spill operated) and are often mounted on the drum.
helicopter
Occasionally be winches on helicopters winch or (English) winch called
literature
- German high seas sports association "Hansa" (Hrsg.): Seemannschaft. Yachting manual. 21st edition. Delius Klasing, Bielefeld 1990, ISBN 3-7688-0523-9
- Joachim Schult: Sailors Lexicon. 9th edition. Delius Klasing, Bielefeld 1994, ISBN 3-87412-103-8
