Deck winches
Deck winches
Deck winches
The final placement of deck winches was done this past month. We are trying to finish all welding and drilling for all deck fittings. The goal is to fair the deck in December/January and to lay the wood deck in 3 months starting in early February. After the final locations of the deck winches were decided on Graafship welded in the deck flanges for the 24VDC vertical electric winch motors that penetrate below deck. We also drilled the holes to fasten the deck winch bases that will be mounted on top of the wood deck to elevate the winches for the right line entry angles.
We have eight powered Harken 980 bronze plain-top (PT) and two manual 74 bronze self-tailing (ST) winches for the mizzen runners on Wolfhound. It is a few more powered winches than John Alden envisioned although we tried to keep the number of winches to a minimum and not equip her with the larger number of winches (typically 20+) which are common for schooners that will be raced. This is still in the spirit of the design objectives for a blue water cruising schooner designed for a small crew. After all that is why John Alden drew the 3-masted sail plan in the first place.
It is worth noting that the 110’ steel schooner HARDI BIAOU designed by John Alden and launched in 1928, one year after the lines of WOLFHOUND were drawn, had electrical deck winches for hoisting the sails just like on WOLFHOUND.
John Alden wrote in the designers notes for design 0347 (WOLFHOUND): The advantages of the three-masted rig for deep sea work are many. The area of the spanker is only about 60 percent of the main- sail of a two-master of the same hull design, and the weight of the boom and gaff are correspondingly lighter. There are, of course, many other advantages, and I would plan to have a small stationary gasoline engine on deck to hoist the sails and anchors, as all coasters do."
Sunday, November 2, 2014