Electric Winch and Windlass Safety

A decade ago a woman from Venezuela was hoisting her husband up the mast of their Amel Maramu 54. The winch was electrically powered, built by Lewmar, and became stuck in the on position. In trying to release the rope she became entrapped, losing her hand, part of an arm, and crushing her other hand (later losing fingers). A good Samaritan rushed over, also became entrapped, and lost seven fingers. In the words of one eyewitness, it was as a scene from “an abattoir, with body parts all over the cockpit.” In addition to the winch sticking on, there was also an override, interfering with her efforts to release the halyard. The winch was foot-operated, although this was not thought to be a factor.

What would you have done in this case? As the wife, you are hoisting your husband on a single line that may break under the strain, dropping him to the deck. He’s probably yelling something about easing the rope or turning off the power. If you have a knife, if you cut the line, you fear gravity will take charge. As the good Samaritan, there is blood everywhere, a person screaming in pain, and surely, you can’t pull either the line or the person free.

WOULDA SHOULDA

In retrospect, things could have gone differently. The winch should have been stopped the instant an override started. In fact, it speaks to poor rigging if an override was possible. The tail should be flaked out evenly so that the halyard could be lowered manually and in control; this will be required later anyway. The husband should have been warned to hug the mast tightly with arms and legs; if the halyard failed, he would have slid slowly down to the spreaders, not smash to the deck, losing only a little skin at worst. The wife should have hustled to the breaker and turned off the runaway winch. Surely she would have been instructed as to its location. The Samaritan should have known he couldn’t manhandle a winch. But once things go sideways we don’t always think straight.

IT’S NOT JUST WINCHES

I nearly had an anchor windlass eat my fingers. I started in what I thought was a safe position, near the bow but on one knee, preparing to secure the chain lock as the anchor settled into place. But a wake upset my balance, throwing me to one side where I landed with one hand on the chain and my other knee, along with most of my body weight, on the switch. It was a guarded switch, but I had been using my foot just moments before and the cover was flipped up. I could not unweight the knee to turn off the windlass without pressing my hand harder onto the chain, and my hand was at the entrance to the windlass. I could not lift my hand without my head crashing into the bow rail; I was leaning too far forward. I lifted my hand anyway, slammed my head, and all I lost was a corner of my sailing glove and barely a bump on my forehead. But as a result of this experience, I’m not wild about foot switches for winches or windlasses. How can you maintain good control when you need both feet for balance?

WITH WINCH POWER, COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY

I recently heard of a Nauticat 441 that had an electric genoa winch stick in the on position. First, attempting to release the sheet, the skipper found the tail was too tightly lodged in the self-tailer jaws to come out. He scampered below for the breaker, amidst popping and cracking noises, but the sheet parted (11,0000-pound breaking strength) before he got there. No major damage.

An unguarded, open winch of the type found on sailboats is strictly prohibited by OSHA, for exactly this sort of reason. An electric winch is every bit as dangerous as a chainsaw and should be treated with the same respect. And yet there is no training or meaningful instruction in the manual. The manuals give no detailed instruction on switch position or contingencies for safety. It is left to the judgment of the installer. Since we have seen commonly the stripping arm for factory-mounted self-tailing winches pointing in the wrong direction, we’re not universally comfortable with installer judgment. Let’s break it down.

Switch Location. Based on our observations, instead of being based on safety, the switch location is based on convenience, and probably with no more thought than placing a light switch. At a minimum, the following must be provided for:

• A clear view of what is to be tensioned or hoisted. For example, if you are hoisting the main, you must be able to see both the lower track and masthead.
• An ability to manually position yourself to tail the winch. Although self-tailing is available, it is not always the safe way to operate a winch. For example, if hoisting a crew member, an electric winch must be manually operated with manual tailing.

  

• Making sure it’s impossible to step on or fall against the switch accidentally. A guarded or recessed switch helps, but guards can be flipped open, accidentally or on purpose. This includes both floor and combing locations. And once open it’s easy to forget to close it
• The hand or foot operating the winch cannot be used for balance, even if shoved or pushed around. At least one hand must be available for tailing or guiding the tail. Where will your hands and feet naturally go when you lose your balance? Onto the switch? Onto the loaded end of the rope or onto the drum? The operator must be in a stable, well braced position.
• Must not reach past the winch or through the tails. What if the self-tailer slips and the tails suddenly run out? A vertical bulkhead is a safer switch location than next to the winch.
• Greater than 12 inches from winch. It is always possible.

Remote buttons are common. The remote must be labeled. The remote cannot be used for hoisting a person because the winch must be manually tailed and manually cranked for this operation.

Switches with flip-up guards look functional, but the guards can be knocked off or simply left up for convenience, completely defeating their purpose. We prefer recessed switches with no flip-up option.

Anderson, Harken, Lewmar, and Seldon recommend opening the breaker when winch is not in use. This is not very practical. Instead, install a master switch in the cockpit. I’ve personally had winches fail “on” in industry, where a clutch that prevented overloading saved the day.  However, electric sailboat winches have no such clutch. Windlasses normally do, but often the clutch is seized with corrosion or from over-tightening. Lewmar electric winches have the option to use their Electric Load Sensing (ESL) control box, which is designed to stop the winch at very high loads, which simply limits motor amps.

General Electric Winch Precautions. There is a lot of power and unlike a manually cranked winch, you are isolated from the feel. Additionally, because of expense and to provide a clean cockpit, electric winches are often mated with big banks of line clutches, with only one winch on each side. Don’t leave the genoa sheet in a line clutch. You never know when you may need to tack away to avoid a collision, and oh no, you neatly stored the sheet in a bin and some other line that needed tweaking is on the winch. Valuable seconds will be lost. [link to “Collision Avoidance in Extremis” article]

• Enough turns on the drum. There must be few enough turns that there is enough tension on the last wrap to hold the line in the self-tailing jams and that the rope can be released under the prevailing conditions, but also enough turns so that the self-tailing jaws are not overloaded. If too few turns, the rope can become jammed in the jaws, the jaws can be damaged, or the rope can slip or suddenly jump out. This requires special attention on electric winches, because you are isolated from the feel of the load.
• Mind the tail when releasing. Again, you have been isolated from the power involved. The sheet may run out like a rocket when released from the self-tailer jaws, catching you by surprise. Keep your tailing hand well back from the drum and pay attention, that it is not drawn in. Never wrap the rope around your hand; if you need more grip, add more turns to the winch and get a pair of gloves.
• Beware the power. Manually tail the winch if you think cranking too hard mechanically can cause damage, which it often can. Unlike manual grinding, you won’t feel the load increase.

Hoisting Crew up the Mast. Lewmar specifically forbids using electric winches to hoist people. Read the operating precautions in the manual.  But we know some of you are going to do it anyway, so take all possible precautions, understanding that what you are doing is safety critical. First, manually tail the winch. Although self-tailing is available, it is not safe for this operation. People have been dropped when the line slipped. You must have either a clear line of sight or recruit an attentive spotter. This is not a safe one-person job.

You may have to crank an electric winch due to motor failure, switch failure, power failure, or just a dead battery. Like a manual winch, it should be located for good grinding ergonomics. Note: inserting the handle disconnects the power for obvious reasons, but only when the handle is fully locked in; if the handle is not all the way in the winch can spin. The lockout can fail. Never leave a handle in an electric winch.

OSHA 1910.179(a) (59) requires an emergency stop switch, defined as a manually or automatically operated electric switch to cut off electric power independent of the regular operating controls. This is technically satisfied by an accessible breaker, but a clearly labeled emergency cut-off switch in the cockpit makes more sense to us.

What about E-winchers and other electric winch handles? You hold the handle in your hands, so you will feel the force, avoiding many of the hazards. On the other hand, you must brace against the force.  I’ve not used them enough to get used to the feel and find them … weird. I’ve heard of them being used to winch a crew member aloft, which is obviously insanely dangerous, more so than using an electric winch, since there is no way you can use the electric winch handle and safely hand tail with less than three or more likely four hands (there will be enough force that two hands are required on the handle).  I’m not seeing the use.

CONCLUSION

I’m all in favor of chain saws. Great work savers. I’ve felled a good many trees and cut cords of firewood. But I also have a great deal of respect for them.  You need to understand kick-back, positioning, and how trees fall and shift when cut. I may seem to scoff at powered winches, but I have friends with shoulders ravaged by arthritis that can no longer spin winches.  Powered winches have saved sailing for them. Someday my shoulders will go and I’ll be glad to have a powered winch, but I will also respect it. We often scoff at OSHA. But rules are written based on serious accidents that have actually happened, so they aren’t fundamentally wrong. Many of the factory electric winch installations we’ve seen make us shudder.  Push button sailing sounds delightful at the boat show, but it requires training, rigorous adherence to safe practices, and enormous respect.