Comments based on outfitting Swee****er in 1994-95 -- technology may
have changed since then.

First, although we did not use Antal clutches, other pieces by them
were entirely unsatisfactory -- mostly corrosion in odd places. I
won't use them again for anything.

As to Lewmar versus Spinlock -- it's a toss up.

We had Spinlock clutches on 3 reefs, vang, Cunningham, and preventer.
Entirely satisfactory, no excessive wear in roughly 25,000 miles of
sailing (out of 33,000 mile circumnav).

We used Spinlock jammers on main, genoa, and forestaysail halyard to
lead all three to one winch. Jammers are useful for loads above what
clutches will handle -- they are essentially free from abrasion, but
you must re-tension the line before release, in order to pull the
sliding wedge back. The Spinlock high load jammers were great, but
their price matches their load rating.

IMHO, clutch abrasion is largely a question of how you use them. If
you always pop the clutch with full load, you'll get some abrasion.
If you retension before release, you'll never have any. Reality is
somewhere between.

You can gang any of them with a little clever machine shop work. Side
mounts are easy with some 6061 angle from our favorite industrial
supply house. Or take them apart, drill and countersink the side plate
for flat head machine screws from the inside, then screw the side
plate to a slightly larger piece of 6061 and reassemble the clutch.

Similarly, when ganging or mounting clutches very close, I like to
mount them all on a single piece of 3/8" or 1/2" 6061 that's a little
larger than their bases and then fasten the whole assembly to the deck
with four machine screws through bolted. If you mount them
separately, any irregularities in the deck can cause binding. Also,
the mount screws in most of the clutches are hard to get at – it's
much easier to screw them to a plate in the shop and then the whole
thing to the deck.

Jim Woodward
www.mvfintry.com




Glenn Ashmore wrote in message news:l1hib.74370$sp2.18707@lakeread04...
I'm looking for feedback on rope clutches. The choices seem to be
between Lewmar, Spinlock and Antal. Lewmars have a reputation for being
kindest to the line but have very small size ranges. They can be ganged
but no side mount is available. Spinlocks have a wide (and adjustable)
size range but are supposed to be harder on the line. They can be side
mounted but the bigger sizes can't be ganged. I don't know much about
Antals other than they are a bit more pricy.

Right now I am leaning towards Spinlocks but I am open to suggestions.

Spinlock also has some substantial looking jammers but I am not sure
where you would use a jammer rather than a clutch.