The resounding success of the folding winch handle

Crisis? Not for everyone. Flipper, the folding winch handle developed by Italy’s (and very young) easysea, has literally been taken by storm by international sailors (the U.S. being among them in particular), making it the best-selling crank handle despite the period of severe crisis dictated by COVID-19.

This is also thanks to skillful management of customer service, shipping and marketing in smart working mode, company founder Giuseppe Scotto D’Antuono told us.

THE SECRET OF PINBALL’S SUCCESS

The operation of Flipper is simple and ingenious. Its advantage is that you will never have to remove it from the winch because it is collapsible. You got it right, it folds up on itself in three parts: if you don’t use it you just leave it assembled, when you need it just open it in a few simple moves. Totally eliminating the risk – a real one – of losing it in the water during frantic moments.

VIDEO – HERE’S HOW THE FOLDING CRANK WORKS

The weight is 579 grams: closed has a length of 145 mm, open 205. There is also the possibility of arranging the knob horizontally for more leverage, in which case the length is 305 mm.

Once in port, all you have to do is disassemble Flipper and place it in its neoprene bag, which doubles as awinch cover.

THE YOUNG COMPANY THAT SELLS WINCH HANDLES TO THE ARABS

The easysea is led by the youngest entrepreneur in the nautical industry Giuseppe Scotto d’Antuono, who at only 23 years old, together with his partner Francesco Fascelli (27), has already achieved the goal of exporting made in Italy products now to almost every country in the world: some requests even come from the United Arab Emirates!

HERE YOU CAN BUY PINBALL MACHINES NOW

A REVOLUTIONARY STOPPER “IN THE PIPELINE”

Giuseppe gives us a sneak peek: “A collaboration is underway with THE3DGROUP, Italy’s largest 3d digital innovation group, thanks to which we are developing a project that also involves a major Italian university and a leading American metal 3d printer manufacturer. We are working on the realization of a ‘revolutionary’ stopper. The weight will be reduced, because this type of 3D printing, which is very advanced and has never been used in sailing, makes it easy to make voids: the strength compared to a traditional stopper much greater since it will be a single piece.”