The old non self-tailing winches had to go. They were too small and with only two crew we HAD to move to self-tailing. We replaced the two primaries, both secondaries, the mainsheet winch, the main halyard winch, the reefing winch on the boom, and the main halyard winch -- all with new self-tailing winches from Harken. Our other choice was the Anderson Stainless Steel winches, which are very highly rated and very beautiful. But we picked Harken because they arlso very good winches and, if purchased between Sept 1 and Oct 30, you get a huge rebate from Harken of 15% off the suggested list price. Harken also provides excellent after-market service. The last reason is that only Harken has 3-speed winches. The massive B56 primaries were only a small amount more expensive in the 3-speed version as in the 2-speed mocel, and since we wanted as big as we could accommodate and afford, the 3-speeds were attractive. (I may change my mind the first time I have to disassemble them for cleaning). The third speed is a lower gear ratio (2.2:1) which allows rapid stripping of line. The other two gears are the same ratios as the standard two-speed winches (5:1 and 13:1). For more details on sheet loading, power ratios, and winch selection, download my analysis spreadsheet (below).
After some discussion with other KP44 owners we opted to put the winches on the aft cabintop. These big winches just seem to belong there. They are out of the way and easy to use in that location.
Jeff Stander on Beatrix has written an analysis spreadsheet.. Choose winches from Lewmar, Anderson or Harken, enter your sail specifications, and calculate sheet loadings and winch power.
Download the spreadsheet:
Winch Analysis Spreadsheet (Excel 2007-2010 File, 103.8 KB, 
Winch Analysis Spreadsheet (ZIP File, 94.8 KB, An article on which selection and analysis:
Which Winch (MS Word 97-2003 Document, 68.5 KB, 
Which Winch (Adobe PDF File, 164.2 KB,