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The winches on my 26m dont grip the line well. It appears that the plastic drums are smooth from years in the sun. I really only use one to get the last few inches of mainsail up.

Can the be repaired?

Maybe roughen up the plastic with sand paper?

Are you taking 3 wraps and keeping the tail tensioned? Since the winches are not self-tailing, they have to be tailed manually.

Is there something amok with your main sail/halyard? I raise mine by hand. I have a bolt rope in the slot, so mine should be about worse case.

Here is a visual that may help. A lot of information which you probably don’t need, but pay attention to line placement.

Clockwise

JimmyT, you nailed it. I didnt know the difference between tailing and self tailing. In fact i have only used tailing so I thought these should work the same, my Mac newbie erworm.

They work fine when i tail them manually.

Thanks