Primary winch location SO vs DS

[shredjim]

I'm looking to purchase a 45ish ft sailboat soon and have warmed up the most to the Jeanneau 45.2  S.O. and other Jeanneau DS and SO sizes.  My question is -  on the 45.2 why did Jeanneau place the primary winches at the forward corner of the cockpit instead of the rear corner like on some DS models?   I will be self handling the boat often so I would think with the primaries located just forward of the helms, it would be possible and not too difficult to self tack,  especially with electric winches?  At least considerably easier than having to walk to the forward part of the cockpit from the helms. Comments please?  


 Also, how difficult is it to move electric winches to a different position on the cockpit coaming?

[hoppy]

the genoa traveller on the 45.2 is on the cabin top, hence the winch location.

To put winches within reach of the helm, you would need to mount external brackets, so an electric winch would not be an option. Even if you mounted a winch where you wan, you need to see how you can lead the sheet there.

[Don Reaves]

I single-hand my SO35 all the time. The auto-pilot plays a necessary role in tacking. With it, the exact location of the winches isn't really that important, provided you can move from one winch to the other without too much delay.