Winch

A winch (200) for a sailboat comprises a support (206) for mounting the winch with respect to a sailboat, a winch drum (202) rotatable with respect to the support, a manual drive socket for receiving a crank handle for manual driving of the winch and a motor (212) for powered driving of the winch. The winch provides at least two manual forward winding gearing ratios selectable according to the direction of rotation of the manual drive socket. The winch provides motor-operated forward winding and motor-operated reverse winding, reverse winding being provided only when reverse-winding torque is applied to the winch drum. When the crank handle is located in the drive socket the winch is locked against reverse winding. Control means are provided for controlling the motor. The control means has two selectable on-off controls only, a forwards control being exclusively for controlling on-off motor-operated forward winding of the winch drum and a reverse control being exclusively for controlling on-off motor-operated reverse winding of the winch drum.