About us

The UNOLS East Coast Winch Pool was developed to facilitate the science based use of winches. The East Coast Winch Pool is part of the UNOLS Equipment Pool Program. We maintain, prepare, and repair portable winches used in the fleet. The majority of our funding comes from the National Science Foundation.

Types of Winches

Heavy Duty

These winches are large and are for large diameter cables. They are multiple pieces.

Medium Duty

These winches are relatively large and are best suited for larger diameter cables or very long lengths of smaller cable. They are capable of holding 2000 meters of 0.5 inch cable. They can be used with a motion reference unit and have active heave compensation. They are also capable of operating with render and render recover modes.

Light Duty

These multipurpose winches are best suited to small diameter cables. They can level wind any diameter cable and are suitable for most applications. For example, they are capable of holding 2000 meters of 0.322 cable. They can be used with a motion reference unit and have active heave compensation. They are also capable of operating with render and render recover modes.

Ultra-light Duty

These winches are the smallest least powerful winches available. They are used for light loads.

Mooring Spooler

These winches are used in mooring operations.

Base Plate

The East Coast Winch Pool has standard base plates and turntables for the winches.

Wire Spooler

Wire spoolers are used to spool cable onto winches. Contact the WHOI Port Office for scheduling.

Sheaves

Sheaves in the pool available to users

MRU

Accessory for adding heave compensation to winch

How to Schedule

Use the schedule request form, or call the winch pool.