• "It’s a huge step forward in terms of simplicity,safety and performance."

    Thibaut Vauchel-Camus

    Route du Rhum 2014

  • "It’s the biggest advance in winch design in a generation… I was blown away by the results."

    "Yachting World", January 2015

    Toby Hodges

  • "Pontos has reinvented the winch introducing a valuable innovation... they have made a revolution in the village."

    Loïck Peyron

    July 2014

  • "Pontos 4 speed winches have clearly become the benchmark."

    Sébastien Rogues

    December 2014

  • "The GRINDER winch is the ultimate weapon when sheeting-in the slack on all the sheets, halyards, furling lines etc…!"

    Bertrand Castelnerac

    June 2014

  • "The GRINDER winch sheets in so fast that the windward sheet can stays in the self-tailing from start to finish: Simple, Fast, Efficient !"

    Patrice Carpentier

    "Bateaux" , October 2014

Four-Speed Sailboat Winches Come to the Americas 

A French revolution in winch design has come ashore to the Americas. Pontos Americas is proud to be a partner with Pontos in the U.S., Caribbean, and South and Central America. Winner of the 2014 SAIL Magazine Pittman Award for Innovation, the Grinder and Trimmer Four-Speed Winches are faster and more powerful than all other winches on the market--and affordable--a boon to racers and cruisers alike. A third revolutionary winch, the Compact, packs more power in a smaller size—a real asset on sailboats where weight and space matter.

Raising a mainsail is almost child’s play with the Trimmer. Fast sheeting around the leeward mark to get to windward before the rest of the fleet has never been easier with the Grinder. Furl and sheet faster with the Compact.

Proof of the pudding:  Pontos winches were selected by nine racers in the 2014 Route du Rhum singlehanded 3,542 nautical mile transatlantic race. Pontos winches met the challenge.

Pontos Winches Best Suited For

  • Racers—each second counts on the race course. Faster tacks mean a faster boat. Choose the Grinder.
  • Cruisers Who Don’t Have the Muscles of Hercules—no reason to retire the boat when your shoulders start to give out. Use the mechanical advantage of a four-speed winch. Check out the Trimmer, or if on a smaller boat, consider the Compact.
  • Singlehanders—for racers, the Grinder is pre-loaded, making slack line retrieval six times faster. Result: back up to speed in seconds. For cruisers, the Trimmer gets you a bigger boat or more powerful sails.
  • Shorthanded Cruisers or Sailors with New Crew—the tacking move is simplified with the Grinder, so you can handle the sheeting during a tack, easing the burden on your new crew. Sailing families with young children—or other nonbeefy crew--will benefit from the Trimmer—raising and furling sails has never been easier.
  • Smaller Boats--the Compact is the answer.