Fancy sailboats have fancy shit. Tough sailboats have tough shit. For example, here is your typical self-tailing winch:
These puppies have two or three speeds and will take up the line as your grind it in. They are PRICEY.
On the other hand, this is the type of bronze winches The Creamy Pint is equipped with:
The winches and cleats are all bronze. Besides being tough, bronze looks cool. The winches on my boat are so damn old I’ve had sailers on that don’t know how the hell to work them.
According to trusty, wickipedia, Bronze can be superior to iron in many applications. It is considerably less brittle than iron. Bronze only oxidizes superficially; once the surface oxidizes, the thin oxide layer protects the underlying metal from further corrosion.. Bronze resists corrison (especially seawater corrosion) and metal fatigue better than steel. It’s stronger than iron, too.
In ancient days, barbarians sought to unravel the riddle of steel. The answer to this opaque mystery was that steel is only as strong as the hand that wields it. The bronze on The Creamy Pint is more than just hardware, it’s a manifestation of the boat’s ethos.
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