Electric Winches replacing standard 55 ST
Swan47 CB -1984 #68, Cygnus. We keep Cygnus in the Caribbean, and though family and friends visit often, my wife and I are the crew. We are both in our late 70’s and we are considering replacing the Lewmar (55 ST) winches at the forward end of the cockpit, P&S, and installing Electric Lewmar winches (55 EVO ST) in their place. Our concern is do we have room under the cockpit coaming at that position to accommodate the motor and gearbox which is offset from the centerline of the winch by about an inch to one side, and about 8 inches in one direction fore and aft, and about 2 inches in the opposite direction. We won’t be able to get to the boat until mid-January for measurement.
Has any member done any electric conversion? What advice would you offer? Mel Boudrot

Mel, we have stayed manual on our 47 but I am fitting an electric winch to our new old boat and the boatyard plans to put a spacer under the winch in order to gain a bit of depth for the motor vertically. From memory the vertical space needed under the winch is 8 inches on a Lewmar 55/65. Gavin

Gavin, Thanks for the reply. My immediate concern is whether there is enough room side to side under the coaming. The offset of the shaft places the motor further outboard (or inboard) than the diameter of the winch on top. Is the winch you are replacing with electric located where the 55 is at the front end of the cockpit, but furthest aft in the line of winches? Is it a Lewmar that your are using? I know there are other winches that have the a vertical motor sitting directly below and within the winch diameter parameter. If it's more convenient, this is my e-mail address: melboudrot@msn.com. Thanks again, Mel

I was thinking of changing my primaries for electric winches, but saw a test for the Winchrite in Yachting Monthly. http://www.winchrite.co.uk/ I think I am going to give this a try and see how we get on - cheaper than electric and also means that you can use it in the mast winches as well as the cockpit winches so more versatile as well.

Has anyone else had any experience with the Winchrite?