I have a bit of a sailboat sail-winch mystery.
I bought an Infinity-54 sailboat in 1988 from a small factory ,owned by
John Amen.John Amen is a famous American sail-maker , in Northern
California , and he agreed to assemble the I-54 sailboat and race it at
the prestigious San Francisco Spreckle’s Lake in Golden Gate Park.The
SFMYC is based there as well as the boathouse.The I-54 was raced by John
and won the US Regatta race and was on the cover of the AMYC magazine.
Fast forward 22 years later and the sail-winch needing refurbishment. I
contacted John to ask who the winch builder was and he could not
recall.There isn’t any maker’s name on the chassis.The mystery is the fact
that no one in the USA can identify the sailwinch.It could possibly be
made in the UK or Europe.The MFA-Como RE360 dc motor is from the UK .The
chassis is stainless steel,plastic gears,Alpha potentiometer and SS ball
bearings. I was hoping that the editor might recognize it.
It is not a Dumas,ProBar or Ray Ozmun winch.The reason for learning
about the sail-winch history is because it is a great winch,small and
robust . I also want to reproduce the sail-winch with updated components ,
such as a digital servo amplifier, Hall’s Effect potentiometer and metal
gears.
Regards,
John