ELECTRIFYING WINCHES

Tired of breaking my biceps on manual winches, I've employed some great tools that help-and that also do a whole lot more on the boat.

- ROGER HUGHES

A self-tailing electric winch makes it nice and easy to wind the winch on a sailboat. There was a time when electric winches imposed high electrical surges on batteries and quickly drained them, but this is less of an issue now, with high-capacity batteries, powerful alternators, and portable generators to replace any loss.

However, the major obstacle remains: the high cost of electric winches. I have six Lewmar manual two-speed self-tailing winches in the cockpit of my schooner, Britannia. To replace them with electric versions, the cost would be $3,000 to $3,500 each. Even converting them to electric would be about $2,500 each, depending on the suppliers.

Instead, with a cordless, battery-powered winch winding machine, I made all the winches on my boat "electrified."

I made a simple winch-winder years ago on a previous boat, using an electric drill with a right-angle adapter and a special eight-point socket in the chuck, which then fit into the top of the winch. It worked, but holding the drill with one hand while tailing the line with the other was difficult.

Also, the drill's battery quickly lost power, and, if the load was particularly heavy, the drill wouldn't turn at all. There are now some powerful, one-piece, right-angled cordless drills available, such as the Milwaukee Tool M28 (about $470 with one battery), but they are designed for construction work. They're big and heavy. My wife, Kati, simply couldn't handle one, and even for me, using one two-handed on a self-tailing winch took some holding if the full torque was applied, so we moved on.

Enter the Winch Rite, an electric winch-winding device with a high-capacity lithium battery and a two-speed reversible motor. I bought one at the Annapolis boat show in 2011 for $550, and it is still working aboard Britannia. (A new one costs about $900.)