What are these three pillars with crank handles in the cockpit?
Posted by MisterGerry@reddit | sailing | View on Reddit | 25 comments
I've been watching The Mariner YouTube videos and his latest video shows a clear view of these three pillars in his cockpit. I've seen these on racing boats, but never knew what they did.
He operates them briefly in this video, but it's not clear to me what they do.
dickwae@reddit
Dude must hate night vision
the-montser@reddit
That looks like the reflection of the white steaming light on the white sail.
Monkey_Fiddler@reddit
deck light, he was sailing
the-montser@reddit
Sails out doesn’t mean the engine isn’t on. Steaming light is on when motorsailing.
But yes, it could also be a deck light.
Monkey_Fiddler@reddit
sure, but in the video he's sailing as his prop is broken or missing.
the-montser@reddit
I did not watch the video - just said what it looks like.
dickwae@reddit
My steaming light doesn't light up the deck like that, bet that he's lit up like a Christmas tree for the cameras.
the-montser@reddit
That’s why I said it looks like reflection of the white steaming light as it bounces off the sail. I’ve been on boats with very bright steaming lights that do that.
TrueToe5649@reddit
We actually run a light from the mast foot forwards into the kite at night when going downwind. Trimmers / drivers love it
dickwae@reddit
traditionally someone quickly lights the kite once in a while with a flashlight to have a look, I can't imagine a skipper loving constant close encounters of the third kind levels of light. This boat isn't racing and looks like he's in crab pot territory.
7ibor@reddit
They are coffee lovers and those are the grinders. Always fresh ground coffee at sea, yay!
whyrumalwaysgone@reddit
Pepper grinder winches. Operated by 2 people, one on each side, and usually a foot pedal assembly to shift gears/speed. Source: used to run an old Americas Cup boat that had them
MisterGerry@reddit (OP)
What are they changing?
Obviously there are no gears - the engine isn't running and it's a sailboat :)
sepptimustime@reddit
They are for adjusting how the sail stands, relative to the wind. You turn the handle and the sail moves accordingly. You can change the ratio of the gears of the winch to select if you have more power or more speed to change the position of the sail.
whyrumalwaysgone@reddit
Gears inside the winch. Ours had 3 speeds
1) very slow and powerful
2) fast and more difficult to crank
3) terrifyingly fast and pretty hazardous
Nearby_Maize_913@reddit
it is used to generate hydraulic pressure to run the winches. Assume the gears are to gear down when pressure gets higher. Ive only sailed on one boat with them (orma 60) just for fun when I was invited. They are just as exhausting as you would think but I'm a lightweight
Which-Bid7754@reddit
These are purely gear drives. Only the AC AND F50 style boats really "store" power. These are linked directly to gearboxes under the deck. They can have a bunch of fears for fine tuning, using foot buttons on the deck to change gears.
Benf2001@reddit
Depending on the boat you can change which winch is being powered by the grinders, and they often have 2 or often more gears like a normal winch, so you can have a fast mode to hoist and then a slower more powerful mode for trimming
Benf2001@reddit
On the maxis they have their engines running all the time even when reaching so that they can power hydraulics, batteries and winches
TrueToe5649@reddit
Depending on the boat you can also link several grinding pedestals together to get even more power onto a single winch. Look for some videos of TP52 kite hoists for example
TrueToe5649@reddit
They are linked to the winches via transfer boxes and axles under deck. Gives you a lot more power and more efficiency when grinding than using normal winch handles
futurebigconcept@reddit
We call them coffee grinders.
Unfair_Cry6808@reddit
Deck winches my dude. They cure hangovers.
richbiatches@reddit
Thats where the gorillas work
Raneynickelfire@reddit
Winches.