Low-Profile Snubber Winch

New boats often engender new types of hardware. Case in point, the new low-profile SnubbAir combination snubbing winch and ratcheting foot, or cheek, block from Harken, originally created for the J/70 class. “The classic Harken plain-top B8A winch has [worked well]. But take one walk down the dock and you see a whole array of creative ways crews try to pad or cover them up. We started to think that changing out the B8A in that application could improve crew performance and reduce the amount of bruising the trimmers endure,” says Harken’s Jim Andersen. With this in mind, the new SnubbAir weighs about half as much as a standard winch and—equally important—presents a 30 percent lower profile. A pair of Delrin ball bearings assure very little friction, while an adapter allows you to also use snubber in conventional winch mode. $225. Harken, harken.com