Sidewinder: Description of a New Block Winch for Deploying Instruments at Sea

We describe a new electric winch design and its functionality for conducting research operations off different‐sized vessels. Currently, several small oceanographic winches are available for deploying research instruments and nets, but they are typically heavy, noisy, semipermanently mounted to the deck, hydraulically operated, and not readily transferable between vessels. The limitation of winch portability between vessels, in particular, has been exacerbated by the increasing use of a variety of chartered vessels to conduct state and federal agency and university research. To address these challenges, we developed a relatively lightweight (70 kg), portable block‐design winch that is spooled with 400 m of plasma line, powered by two 12‐V marine batteries, and operated by a remote control box on a pendant equipped with a joystick. The 2.2‐kW drive produces 100 kg of line pull at speeds of 0 to 2.0 m/s. The pendant includes digital displays for line speed, scope, and angle as well as an emergency stop. Nicknamed the “Sidewinder,” this winch is quiet, can be operated by one person, and is suspended outboard from a davit or crane boom, increasing available deck space and relocating all lines safely away from vessel personnel. On vessels 7 to 50 m in length the Sidewinder has been successfully tested for deploying small gear such as conductivity–temperature–depth profilers and large BONGO plankton nets that require specific deployment and retrieval speeds and line angles. To ensure safe operation, vessel support features such as the power system and davit working load capacity should be considered when the Sidewinder is custom‐built.