Winches

Superyacht Winches and yacht capstans are an important piece of equipment necessary in the operation of sail and power yachts. Originally these were operated by hand, or steam and are still operated by hand on traditional and high tech racing yachts. High load winches on superyachts are now hydraulically or electrically operated. The loads on a modern yacht winch can be extremely high and anybody operating one needs to be trained carefully in their use, they are possibly the most dangerous piece of equipment on a large yacht today. Superyacht winches can be manufactured in several types of material with steel, bronze, aluminium and carbon being the most popular. What is often confusing is the question, what is a yacht winch and what is a yacht capstan? There appear to be several answers to this, one being that a yacht capstan is a vertical machine and a yacht winch horizontal, another is that you can store line on a winch, but with a capstan you transfer the line to a set of bits.