Race Winches Compared: Harken vs Lewmar vs Andersen

This is an independent, objective comparison built from each maker's published specifications and mechanisms — we have no partner among hardware brands, and the figures below are theirs, not our own measurements. On a one-design the winch package is largely fixed by the class, so for an owner the live decisions are usually gearing, reversing drives and servicing. For fundamentals see sailing winches explained and winch servicing.

The interesting differences between Harken, Andersen and Lewmar are not "which is good" — all three build winches that survive Grand Prix loads. They are engineering choices: how the gear train is laid out, whether the drive reverses under load, what the drum is made of and how it grips, and where the weight goes. This piece works through those specifics with real published figures.

At a glance

How to read the numbers: power ratio and gearing

Everything downstream starts here. Power ratio is the mechanical advantage in a given gear — handle-input force multiplied by the power ratio is, near enough, the line pull at the drum. Andersen state it cleanly: a 10 kg pull on a 10-inch handle through a 40:1 winch delivers about 400 kg on the sheet at 100% efficiency, less real friction. It is the product of two things: the leverage of the handle arm over the drum radius, and the internal gear ratio. That is why a longer handle or a smaller drum raises power ratio, and why the same casting can be sold at different ratios.

A race crew wants two behaviours from one drum, and a multi-speed winch delivers them by reversing handle direction. Low gear (Speed 1) is fast and low-power: it takes up slack quickly and gets a genoa most of the way in before the load builds. High gear (Speed 2, or Speed 3 on the big race drums) is slow and powerful for grinding the last few degrees of trim home against full load. Look at the real Melges-40-sized numbers:

• Harken Performa 46 (2-speed): Speed 1 power ratio 11.7 (gear 2.30:1), Speed 2 46.5 (gear 9.17:1); 100 mm drum; 5.2 kg.
• Andersen 46 ST FS (2-speed): Speed 1 15.7, Speed 2 47.1 (gears 2.8:1 / 8.4:1); 89 mm drum; ~7.8 kg.
• Lewmar EVO 40 (2-speed): Speed 1 13.2, Speed 2 40.2 (gears 1.9:1 / 5.8:1).

The top-gear numbers converge around the mid-40s because that is what it takes to hold a big headsail — the differentiator is not the headline ratio but the take-up speed of first gear, the reversing behaviour, and how the drum and jaws behave under that load. On the largest Harken Performa the range widens dramatically: the 80 three-speed runs roughly 8 / 29 / 93, a very fast take-up gear and a very high grind gear on the same drum, which is the whole argument for a third speed on big boats.

The big modern development: load-sensing reversing drives

The most significant winch advance of the last fifteen years is the reversing (load-sensing) drive, and Harken's Rewind is the reference implementation. It is a three-speed self-tailer with a patented reverse gear. Wind the handle backwards — or run the electric motor in reverse via twin in/out buttons — and instead of the drum locking, it pays line out under load while the tail stays captive in the self-tailing jaws. A red knob selects between forward speeds and the rewind gear, a spring-loaded, investment-cast stainless feeder arm funnels the line in and out so it never jumps the jaws, and an automatic safety clutch disengages the drive if the tail fouls or snags.

Why a professional cares: normally, to ease a highly loaded sheet you break the wrap off the self-tailer and surge it around the drum by hand — coarse, and it needs a body on the leeward primary. With Rewind the trimmer eases by fingertip in precise increments from the windward rail, the line still tailed, and re-trims without ever re-tailing. On furling headsails, big asymmetrics and any shorthanded configuration that is the difference between accurate, repeatable trim and a fight. There is one physical requirement worth stating: there must be enough tension on the loaded side of the sheet to strip the eased line off the drum, so it is a system for easing genuine load, not for shaking out a flogging sheet. Neither Andersen nor Lewmar currently field a self-tailing reverse gear of this type in their standard race ranges; on those you ease under load the traditional way, or fit an electric override and manage it on the button.

Drum: material, diameter and grip

The drum is where the three brands most visibly diverge, and it is a real engineering choice, not badge preference.

Hard-anodised aluminium (Harken Performa, Lewmar EVO) is the light option. Harken sandblast the Performa drum specifically so small-diameter, high-modulus line bites without needing a big wrap angle — sensible now that primaries run Dyneema-cored sheets, not old three-strand. The catch is that the anodised layer is the wear surface: under a hard-driven, heavily tailed sheet it eventually polishes and, once the anodising is through, a bare-alloy drum is softer and abrades cover. It is a maintenance-and-eventual-replacement item, not a lifetime one.

Andersen's drum is the counter-argument. It is 316L stainless, cold-formed in stages during manufacture to raise hardness, with the distinctive Power Rib — vertical ribs machined into an otherwise polished surface. The ribs give a controlled, consistent grip whether you are trimming or easing and whether the drum is wet or dry, and stainless resists both wear and the cover-chewing that a worn alloy drum causes, so it is easier on expensive sheets over a long life. The price is weight and cost: a stainless 46 is about 7.8 kg versus roughly 5.2 kg for the alloy Performa equivalent — call it a 50% penalty per primary, which on a pair of primaries is a couple of kilograms sitting exactly where you would rather not carry it on a planing boat.

At the top of the range Harken removes weight the expensive way. Grand Prix racing winches use carbon skirts and tops over aluminium drums with composite jaws and a one-piece sculpted line guide and peeler; the Air line goes further with a carbon-fibre drum — the Air 900 is quoted at around 24.5% lighter than the equivalent 1130STR despite a larger drum. That is Grand Prix / maxi money and mostly relevant above Melges 40 size, but it shows the direction: alloy for weight and price at mid-size, stainless for durability, carbon when the budget will pay for grams.

Self-tailing jaw, feeder and bearings

The self-tailer is the second place the philosophies show. Harken fit narrow composite jaws tuned to grip small-diameter high-tech line positively — the right call for modern race sheets, which are thin for their strength. Andersen use stainless self-tailing jaws that self-adjust across an 8–14 mm rope range, and on the 40 and larger the whole self-tailing arm rotates through 360° so you can set the exit angle to suit the lead — genuinely useful when a winch does double duty. Lewmar's EVO Race adds a cast-alloy feeder arm and a carbon-fibre top inlay over the standard EVO platform. In practice all three tail reliably; the questions a professional actually asks are line-size range, how positively the feeder captures a loaded tail (which is exactly what the Rewind arm is engineered for), and whether the arm angle is fixed or adjustable.

Under the drum, bearings decide friction and what wears. Harken run composite roller bearings with ball thrust bearings, and PEEK roller bearings on the racing winches — low-friction, self-lubricating and corrosion-proof, which is why they hold efficiency under load and shrug off salt. Andersen carry the drum on stainless roller and ball bearings taking load into the centre stem to minimise friction losses — heavier, extremely robust, and consistent with the all-stainless ethos. The AC (all-carbon) Harken race winches also move to titanium gears for strength-to-weight and corrosion resistance at the extreme end. Composite bearings do not corrode but can be crushed or split if run dry or overloaded; stainless bearings tolerate abuse but can pit and gall if salt is left to sit — which points straight at servicing.

Servicing, corrosion and maintenance

Winches get stripped, cleaned and lubricated on a schedule, and the golden rule is the same across all three brands: grease the metal gears and roller bearings; never grease the pawls and springs — oil them. Greasing pawls makes them stick, and a stuck pawl is a winch that free-spins under load and can throw a grinder. Use a proper winch grease that resists salt and fresh water (Harken's is the common reference) on gears and bearings, and a light pawl oil on the pawls and their springs. Salt is the enemy: it works into every crevice, so a saltwater boat wants servicing before the season and at least once during it — twice a season if it is worked hard.

This is where Andersen's pitch is concrete rather than a slogan. Fewer, larger stainless parts and corrosion-proof materials mean Andersen quote service intervals on the order of two years under normal use, against the pre-season-plus-mid-season cadence a hard-raced alloy winch expects. Whether you take that interval on a Grand Prix programme is another matter — race boats get serviced far more often regardless — but the underlying point holds: stainless internals tolerate neglect better. All three are designed to strip tool-free and reassemble without special kit; the practical differences at the bench are the number of pawls and springs to keep track of, and whether your spares (springs, pawls, the odd bearing) are on the shelf for the brand you are running. Check spares availability for your specific model before a regatta, not after. See winch service basics for the full strip-down.

Melges 40 and Grand Prix application

On a Melges 40 the load map is stark. The primaries do the violent work — sheeting a big overlapping-era headsail or a masthead A-sail home against full breeze — so they get the biggest, fastest, most powerful drums, and this is precisely where a reversing drive earns its place if the programme wants precise easing under load with a lean crew. The pit and cabin-top winches handle halyards, the tack line and control lines: high peak loads on hoists but far less constant grinding, so they are typically smaller and chosen for fast take-up and clean tailing rather than maximum grind.

What a professional programme actually fits usually follows the class and the sailmaker's lead package as much as brand loyalty — the Melges catalogue is built around Harken Performa in the primary sizes (the 40.2STP and 46.2STP two-speeds are the reference), which is why so many one-designs run Harken: it is the fitted standard, spares are everywhere, and the self-tailers suit thin high-mod sheets. A crew that eases furling headsails or big kites shorthanded has a real reason to specify Rewind on the primaries. A boat built for offshore mileage and minimum fuss — where a two-year service interval and a drum that never wears out matters more than half a kilo — has a real reason to favour Andersen. And Lewmar remains the value and range answer, and a sound choice for the cabin-top and pit positions where the loads are lower and the budget is better spent elsewhere.

Our take

With no partner in hardware, the honest read is that this is a decision about mechanism and materials, not about one brand being better. For outright race primaries — and especially for easing highly loaded sheets precisely with a small crew — Harken leads, on the strength of the Performa range being the fitted one-design standard and the Rewind reversing drive having no direct equivalent in the others' standard ranges. For set-and-forget durability, easy-on-sheets grip wet or dry, and the longest service intervals, Andersen's cold-formed 316L stainless and Power Rib drum are outstanding — you pay in weight and dollars. For range, value and the lower-load positions (cabin-top, pit) where a stainless primary would be over-spec, Lewmar EVO is hard to beat. On a one-design the package is largely chosen for you, so the owner's live decisions become gearing (how fast a first gear, how many speeds), whether to specify a reversing drive on the primaries, and — always — servicing them properly.

Our pick: for race primaries and precise ease-under-load, Harken (Performa, and Rewind where you ease big loads shorthanded); for maximum durability, sheet-friendly stainless grip and the longest service intervals offshore, Andersen; for range, value and the lower-load cabin-top/pit winches, Lewmar. On a one-design, favour whichever the class fits, get the gearing right for your crew, and service them on schedule — see winch service basics and the wider deck hardware and servicing picture.