It Happened to me!!

[sandbank pete]

Lost Sunday somewhere around Spinnaker Sound Ramp... 1 Winch Winder Handle
Thanks to the Skipper of "Salubrious" who saved further embarrassment and lent me his to get the boat that final 30cm onto the trailer.:-[

[aussiebasser]

There was one on the western freeway above Moggill Road last week.

[FNQCairns]

Good that it ended good, one thing i have become to understand as my age creeps up is..no matter how cocky or careful you care to be, if any activity is repeated enough times sooner or later one will make virtually every mistake available to even the greenest individual.

Why do lost winch handles always just disappear? like seriously do some boaties have a stash of 'lucky' finds on their garage shelve? why not a pile beside every ramp already....watch your back........sadly.......

[wags on the water]

I always carry a spare in the car....

[PixieAU]

Have lost a couple myself. I carry a spare in the boat and spare in the car and the wheel brace will also do the job.

[scuttlebutt]

Bloody detachable winch handles! My current boat has a 3 speed winch so I can understand, but my last boat had a single speed winch with a detachable winch handle. What the hell is that all about? Ended up finding a replacement that I had to hammer on. Never lost another handle after that. My current routine is to not take my hand off the handle until it is in the back of the troopy. Seems to work.

[Bonus]

I have welded mine on. I got sick of forgetting the bloody thing.

[Crunchy]

Shifter works OK in emergencies

[fisho64]

Write you number on it with a texta.

[Harmytage]

After losing a couple of handles I drilled a hole in the handle and corresponding shaft on the winch that I use 90% of the time and put a split pin through it, this keeps me from losing the handle and if I need to put on one of the lower ratio shafts its just a matter of removing the split pin using it on the other shaft then relacing back to the normal shaft when complete.