As you can see the winch locking mechanism was not aligned properly, and was causing a major pain when attempting to switch winch handles during tacks.....the mechanism was slightly off and was a PITA to release. as shown here....
and here......
A slight twist of the mechanism with a pair of plyer resulted in correct positioning.so that is was positioned in between the winch handle gear teeth...shazaam
and shazaam again!
This is something so simple but never took the time to figure it out. Canada winter months are good for this type of stuff.