Argan is a wooden winch used for hauling boats out of the water for repairs. It is crafted from oak wood. At least five people are needed to start an argan, and the number of people needed to operate it depends on the size and weight of the boat. The two beams laid through the groove at the top are called arms and they are used for starting the device. The longer the beams, the larger the lever.
When a boat is to be hauled out of the water, first a single unjulo rope is prepared, which is attached to the tracks under the boat. The tracks have two saddles to receive the boat, and an iron axle (ašpa) is placed over them, with an adjustable clamp (braga) or hook placed around it. The tracks used to be greased, connected to the boat, and then the gangplanks were greased with hot fat. The haul-out rope is wound unjulo around the argan two to three times while the boat is still floating and does not exert too much resistance or put too much pressure on the slipways. When it gets difficult to pull unjulo, that rope is removed and replaced by the pre-prepared rope hoist (paranak) with another rope coiled onto it. The rope is wound on the argan winch four to five times. On the one side the rope hauls the boat with a block and tackle system wounded in 4 to 6 veta (number of windings around the block), and on the other side the rope comes out and someone is tasked with coiling it.
The argan itself could be moved around near the shipyard’s slipways, but it had to be secured with pins, quality oak fixes that used to be hammered into the ground to the depth of up to half a meter. The argans were used to haul out larger boats like bracera, trabakul or larger leut. Lađa, kaić and gajeta were usually hauled only with ropes, without the argan.