Harken is well known for building several lines of the lightest, most high-performing, powered race winches in the world. Harken powered racing winches set the grand prix performance standard available in working loads up to 15 Tons. Harken Air® winches are now familiar sights at the front, featuring the large top cavity where kgs of unneeded weight have been removed. Once only found aboard the largest mega yachts, Harken’s captive winch selection has expanded. Today, Harken captives are available in much smaller and lighter packages for application aboard much smaller boats where they can become logical alternatives to hydraulic cylinders. Harken even offers the DAME Award-Winning “Push-Pull” captive winch that can move line in opposing directions, allowing a single winch to do the work of two.
Effective immediately, there is a new addition to Harken’s powered winch lineup. The new DynaDrive™ winches are designed from drawing board up as powered winches. This has positive performance and deck design impacts. DynaDrive’s epicyclic design locates a two-speed gearbox on the upper part of the winch. This space-efficient design requires less area within the drum for gearing. This creates vertical space within the drum for the motors, which live almost completely within the drums. This saves headroom below deck which is very attractive to designers of large boats with cruising as the primary mission.
“Harken started making high-performance deck winches in an era when manual winches were all the racing rules allowed and really all the available technology made possible,” said Harken Italy’s Director of Engineering, Michele Cazzaro. “So as powered winches became more and more important, we logically adapted our highest performers for powered application and evolved from there. Our results have been very well received. But it has always been an open question: what would we do beyond racing, with a clean sheet of paper and a powered-first approach? No winch design is right for every application. But DynaDrive provides a very interesting solution for large boats that aren’t all-out racers…but still want that capability on occasion.”
The DynaDrive’s uniquely wide torque curve minimizes the need to shift gears. There are simply fewer shifts required in regular sailing. And the shifts themselves are very smooth. The result is a very civilized performance profile. But one that can deliver aggressive line speeds when called upon.
“Depending on who you ask within Harken, we’ve been working on this design for at least five years,” said Mark Wiss, Harken Global Director of Grand Prix and Custom Yacht Sales. “We’ve tweaked and tweaked and now it’s ready. I think what will impress sailors most is just how smooth and uninterrupted the power transfer is. The torque curve is very flat, so fewer shifts are needed. And when you do reach a shift point, they’re so smooth. It adds up to a quite civilized, very easy winch to live with,” said Wiss. Harken DynaDrive winches are available now.
