Winch facts for kids

Modern self-tailing winch on a sailing boat. Here, the line winched is a jib or spinnaker sheet which runs from the sail (upper left, not shown) to a block (lower right,not shown) and from there to the lower part of the winch. The handle is detachable to facilitate handling of the line.

A winch is a mechanical device that is used to adjust how tight a piece of rope is. It can also be used to pull something. The rope can be made of natural fibre, but when heavy loads need to be handled, special ropes made of iron or plastic are frequently used.

A winch is used to lower someone (in a rescue mission, in the mountains)
Principle of a winch: this time it is used for a medical application

Images for kids

Winch used on a fishing boat to bring in nets
Winching a car onto a tow truck
Glider winch. Winch spool can be seen on the side of the truck, while cables to the right of the image are attached to the glider(s) being launched
Wakeboarding winch which pulls the rider forward as the rope is wound in