Introduction

The Jarvis challenge

    January 1999, I followed classes in square-rigged seamanship at the Enkhuizer Zeevaartschool. One of the teachers there is Capt. Pieter Brantjes of the Stad Amsterdam. On one occasion we came to talk about the brace winches of Capt. Jarvis with which the Stad Amsterdam has been equipped.
To put it briefly the conclusion of Pieter Brantjes was that there is little experience with the winches nowadays, they have not been built for the last 80 years or so, and they had to be, more or less, re-invented. The Sedov and Krusenstern are still equipped with Jarvis winches. But even on one of those vessels the winches are out of use, because there are enough hands about to operate the braces manually. So very few people know how to operate such a winch, what it is capable to, how to adjust it, where to think of when designing a new winch. In the literature the winch is often mentioned and explained in a few words, but when it comes to details there is nobody at home.
    That was where I got interested in Jarvis' winch. I knew what it looked like; I knew a few books in which it was mentioned, so what could be so difficult in describing the way it worked, or the dimensions it should have?
It turned out not to be that simple. I had failed to take a close look at the winch when I visited the Sedov or Krusenstern. If then you start with a wrong idea of the way the coning is controlled, because the proper way is mentioned nowhere, and if then you find a false drawing of the winch in a noted book, then it really becomes an inextricable problem.

Why brace winches on the Stad Amsterdam?
     The reason the Stad has brace winches is the same reason as where the winches are designed for: labour saving. The Stad has a small permanent crew and will not always sail with trainees or with passengers who are able or willing to man the ropes.
The winch is a construction of 1890, the rigging of the Stad is very much like in the Fifties of that century, except for the materials they use. A full-rigged clipper with studding sails and all is a very laborious ship. So they had to find a way to compensate for the lack of crew. In my opinion the choice of an old-fashioned brace winch is to be preferred above the high-tech electrical gear they make today. Modern life-saving equipment looks more out of place, but you cannot do without.
The Brazilian Navy also desired the winches. They want to be able to sail the ship with the crew alone, so without the cadets. Therefore they want to have both systems: long enough rope braces to handle the yards manually when sailing with cadets and winch handling when sailing with crew only.
Like the rest of the rigging the winches of the Cisne Branco look completely different then those of the Stad Amsterdam, because they were built by different contractors. On the Stad the winches are working on the Armstrong-patent only, while the Cisne winches are also equipped with hydraulic gear. On both vessels the capstans can be operated hydraulically aswell as manually.

A proper winch, drawn by Underhill

A report about brace winches
        For the die-hards, here you can find the winch fully explained. The introduction and explanation of the winch are readable for everyone, but the calculations are for those who are really interested in the subject.

Click the frontpage of the booklet to see for yourself.

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