Technical workers at the Max-Eyth-Schule vocational school in Stuttgart

Two students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Max-Eyth-Schule vocational school in Stuttgart described the development and design of a winch in their engineering work. A winch? A device specially designed for wakeboarding to pull a person on a wakeboard over a certain distance. The principle is very simple: It involves a cable winch consisting of a motor/drive, drum/cable, frame and a brake system. The winch is steered and slowed by a second person who remains on land. This is done by operating the throttle lever or the attached braking system. The maximum distance is determined by the length of a cable which is installed in the winch.

But it does not stop there. The winch should also meet a number of requirements:

• Portable, so that the wakeboard system can be used at different locations
• Enables both a water and a dry start using a wakeboard
• Pulls a person a certain distance, which is defined by the length of the cable, at a speed of 35-40 km/h