Used Sailboat Winches

A ride aboard a classic sailboat in New York Harbor

More than 80 years later, something can be said for progress, because you no longer have to be of a certain pedigree to be served a cool beverage while cruising aboard the very same vessel that once entertained Gatsby-era revelers.

Thanks to a succession of owners that put care into her maintenance and restoration, the Shearwater now belongs to Manhattan by Sail, a charter company that caters equally to wide-eyed tourists glimpsing Lady Liberty up close for the first time and seasoned New Yorkers, who don't have friends with yachts, but pine for wind and water.

On a recent windless afternoon, the boat's captain, David Zimmerman, motored the Shearwater, carrying about 30 passengers, slowly out of North Cove Marina, leaving behind the financial district's reflective glass and long-necked cranes.

Across the water, on the Jersey City shoreline, the Colgate Clock, built in 1924, perched like a stubborn dandelion next to its new neighbor, the formidable Goldman Sachs tower.

Things must change, even on the Shearwater. She's had numerous makeovers through the years, including her stint with the Coast Guard during World War II patrolling the Chesapeake Bay for German submarines. In the 1970s, University of Pennsylvania scientists used her as a floating laboratory to study the effects of deep sea diving on the human body.

She's raced the seas and circumnavigated the world. Her current owner, Tom Burton, a native New Yorker who stumbled into sailing in his 20s, put her into public service as a charter boat in the spring of 2001. Docked in the shadows of the Twin Towers, she was damaged by falling debris on Sept. 11.

Among the most obvious changes from the Shearwater's original 1929 design is the change in her rig — the arrangement of masts and sails. She went from having a gaff rig, a more complex arrangement of four-cornered sails common to schooners of her vintage, to a Marconi rig, distinguished by a big, triangular mainsail. "It's easier to handle and lightweight," said Zimmerman, who held the wooden ship's wheel like he was on a Sunday drive. Because it was such a calm day, Zimmerman explained, the boat needed to get farther out into the harbor before he cut the motor and gave the order to raise the sails.

His two crew members, Isabel Martin and Chris Biggins, were posted near the masts, waiting for commands. Martin, wearing a NASA baseball cap, explained how she became an accidental sailor. After college, she arrived in New York from Austin, Texas, looking for work. She answered a help-wanted advertisement to hand out fliers for Manhattan by Sail. Soon she moved up to catching dock lines, and eventually graduated to becoming a deckhand learning the trade on the job. "It's an adventure," she said.

Trimming sails and different circumstances - Started Sailing

Trimming sails and different circumstances

by Christian Hatton
(Duncan, British Columbia, Canada)

For a while now I have wondered how square rigged ships trim their sails. I have seen in movies 10s of men pulling on long lines is this trimming a square sail? and did they have winches back in those days? And in some movies i have noticed the square sails luff like a spinnaker on a reach like modern ships? how would you know when to stop trimming a square sail? is it like a modern day spinnaker?

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