# One for the Leckys



## salvina (Feb 14, 2008)

What in your opinion was the most reliable winch? (and don't say a steam one!)(Smoke) (Wave)


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## avonbank (Feb 10, 2007)

Thridge-Titan followed by Lawerance-Scott.


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## jimmys (Jan 5, 2007)

Clarke Chapman made a nice little winch. Some of them had the Lawrence Scott electrics.
I served my apprenticeship with Reids in Scotland, they made the winch and again Lawrence Scott Electrics.

regards


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## iain48 (Oct 19, 2005)

In my short experience at sea with only two types to compare Sunderland Forge on Safmarines SAMerchant and with Laurence Scott on Weirs Elmbank the latter was by far the better gear.


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## Nick Jones (Feb 13, 2006)

Clarke Chapman I thought were the best, Lawrence Scott was a close second. We had Thrige Titan "SCR" winches fitted the the Manipur when it was lengthened. The "SCR" (A first for me in 1971) controls were good, but there had been quality issues with the amount of varnish on the commutator rotor and consequently I had to change out 6 of them in a 6 month voyage.

Cheers
Nick Jones


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## Les Gibson (Apr 24, 2004)

Had some very unpleasant experiences with Clarke Chapman winches on the Blanchland of Stevey Clarkes. They were probably among the first AC winches and had stator cooling served by small fans mounted under the winch. As soon as the decks took any water, these fans failed and were a nightmare to change. Motors were pole changing and would blow up with frightening regularity. The ships charterers always tried to find us berths with shore cranes because of the unreliability of the winches. My favourites had to be Lawrence Scott, but Thrige weren't bad.


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## Calm C (Sep 23, 2006)

Used to call Lawrence Scott the Rolls Royce of winches although the DC control gear used to cause a lot of trouble-very hard to extract failed components at the back of the panel. For AC winches found Seimens pole changing motors with BBC control gear very reliable although they did have cooling fans and the covers had to be closed before leaving port.


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## twogrumpy (Apr 23, 2007)

Was that winch or wench??
twogrumpy


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## stewart4866 (Nov 25, 2006)

Knowing you phill it was wenches lol!


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## twogrumpy (Apr 23, 2007)

Stewart
Did meet a nice girl from Belfast once, trouble was she had a dodgey brother..
twogrumpy


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

twogrumpy said:


> Stewart
> Did meet a nice girl from Belfast once, trouble was she had a dodgey brother..
> twogrumpy


Well if you didn't fancy the brother, couldn't you have asked one of your shipmates to make up a foursome?


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## salvina (Feb 14, 2008)

Thanks to all who replied. My favourite for reliability and easy to work on was also the Thrige. On the Fremantle Star we had cranes which for the life of me I can't remember who they were made by.


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## jAdUwallah (Oct 27, 2007)

I presume you're on about those capstany things that made a whirring noise, some at the pointy end and some at the back.

My favourite ones were the ones that worked.


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## Nick Jones (Feb 13, 2006)

Speaking of one's that worked, I remember the mate on the Matra wondering why we worked on the winches between ports, as other electricians apparently didn't do so. So I asked him how many failures he had while working cargo and how many times he had to call us out in the middle of the night. Then he saw the picture. Not so dumb after all.

Cheers,

Nick Jones


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## Bearsie (Nov 11, 2006)

Nick Jones said:


> Speaking of one's that worked, I remember the mate on the Matra wondering why we worked on the winches between ports, as other electricians apparently didn't do so. So I asked him how many failures he had while working cargo and how many times he had to call us out in the middle of the night. Then he saw the picture. Not so dumb after all.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Nick Jones


Hi Nick.
Always amazing how after hundreds of years of using machinery, the world in general and many bosses in particular have yet to grasp the concept and VALUE of Preventive Maintenance !!!
Whereas in my mind "leckies" and others of their ilk should be national heroe's, thay usually just get treated as a neccessary evil (overhead) !

Greetings Bearsie.


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## Bearsie (Nov 11, 2006)

Deutz Diesel Halapa winches on the coasters seemed the best.
But my alltime favored were Drammen hydraulic winches.


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## Anubis (Mar 15, 2008)

We used to use Clarke Chapman 3 speed winches on the OLEANDER and REGENT, without any trouble. We also used Clarky's 4 ton auto tensioning winches which were prone to problems with their slipping clutches.


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## Sarky Cut (Oct 11, 2007)

My only experience of winches was on a containership and they were Siemens pole changing auto tension. the winches were OK but the North Atlantic in winter removed the centre bow motor off its mountings.

The cure for this was to use even tougher flange securing bolts, the next trip the water took the entire winch of its mountings and so doing left the forecastle head open to the sea via the cable pipeing.

The forecastle flooded up during the night and wiped out all the winch controls and any other bits that were below 3 metres above the deck.

This was repaired in Hamburg where the entire winch panels were removed from the ship and rebuilt within three days, new cables fitted thoughout and the ship sailed missing out one port and was back on schedule.

The next trip across was without incident but the next one resulted in the repeat performance of the bow winch being ripped off yet again. This time the ship was turned around and the pipe was sealed before the space was floooded again.

As I was a tanker man with steam winches the first three months on this ship was a steep learning curve in how to keep deck machinery running on what was in effect a submarine for six months of the year.

Dart Canada anybody?


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## michael charters (Apr 4, 2010)

Bearsie said:


> Hi Nick.
> Always amazing how after hundreds of years of using machinery, the world in general and many bosses in particular have yet to grasp the concept and VALUE of Preventive Maintenance !!!
> Whereas in my mind "leckies" and others of their ilk should be national heroe's, thay usually just get treated as a neccessary evil (overhead) !
> 
> Greetings Bearsie.


Totally agree. 48 years in Electrical maintenace. The bosses could never understand it. I looked after the winches in my watch, like housework never done. you have to keep regular maintenance to keep them in good repair. keeping a log book and stock faults helped. Clarke Chapmen, Good. DC only experience on Shipping. My hands were always dirty with carbon dust.
Remember changing desicators regular. I fitted mutton cloth over the vents to stop cargo dust ingressing. Does any of you CEEMOs ever remember using the DeGausing anti mine sytem? I used it once sailing thru the Bay of Biscay. Why I cannot recall. Around 1969. MV PICARDY. Now at the bottom of the India Ocean. The winches room contact now the colour of my rank braids, green?(K)


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## binliner (Apr 19, 2006)

we used to test the degauging gear when leaving london late 60s early 70s about an hour or so after leaving the docks where it was checked somewhere down river.On one ship no circuit on the gear after test started to check cables found someone had stripped all the copper out and left just the external rubber sheath must have had a few tons of scrap to sell.


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## Satanic Mechanic (Feb 23, 2009)

For me the modern Pusnes hydraulic jobs are pretty ace, though they could do with a off load oil cooler.

TTS Kocks I just don't like as much, hard to say why but one factor is the lack of attention to detail - the wee things are important


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## Superlecky (Apr 15, 2006)

After serving my time as a Lecky in Silley Cox at Falmouth in the 1960's and doing a lot of work on the Federal & NZ ships' winches, when I left to go to sea it was with a tanker company.


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## John Dryden (Sep 26, 2009)

It,s along time ago but when I was deck app. on the Olivebank our lecky,Jim was forever keeping them going.Don,t know what make the winches were but I used to help him quite a lot,mostly running to get him a new part and then watch the sparks fly when he put it in.However it stood me in good stead when the derricks on all hatches were being used and I could go into the winch box and sort minor problems out,as we did.


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## simomatra (Jul 27, 2009)

LS simply the best. (Applause)(Applause)

Though do your maintenance and all went well in port in the old days. Working offshore was the same only the winches worked all the time


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