Originally Posted by
Leisesturm
Whether arm or leg power, the human energy goes directly into the winches via a (fluid coupled) gear train. The electrical needs of a sailing boat are low enough that batteries, charged onshore, can power the boat through even multi-day races.
Interesting article in Cyclingnews from last May. It seems that the human energy gets stored in a hydraulic "battery" that then is used to drive the winches. So maybe we have different definitions of "directly"
https://www.cyclingnews.com/features...-americas-cup/
Also in this article is a description of how the "cyclors" efforts are used. When the winches are running, they are flat out sprinting at 1000+ watts, but when the winches aren't in use, they are still putting out power, storing pressure in the hydraulic pressure cell, and the average ~400 watts over the course of the ~30 minute race.