Garland Gray II wrote:
I hesitate to weigh in on this as I know my limitations regarding
electricity, but this logic makes sense to me: that having a separate
battery close to the windlass to reduce the long run of a large cable
ignores the fact that you will still need to run a fairly large wire to the
battery to carry what may be a large charge to a depleted battery.



Actually, this is the only part that makes sense. Since the charging
current can be low, a much smaller wire would be needed. (One must be
careful that the Voltage stay within the normal charging level. Its
easy to forget that a 5% drop can mean chronic undercharging.) Also, if
a dedicated windlass battery is used, an AGM starting battery may be the
best bet - no maintenance, no leakage, lower self discharge, etc.

In general, however, the dedicated windlass battery doesn't make sense,
especially if the engine is usually run when the windlass is used. (Its
certainly been a few years, make that decades, since I sailed off the
anchor.) I would go with a dedicated starter battery and a deep cycle
house bank of 200 Amp-hours or more. The foolproof way to charge is an
Echo-Charge. All charging would go to the house bank, with the the
starter fed by the Echo. The only switch needed is a jumper to latch
the two banks together, though if its setup properly jumper should not
be needed often and can be replaced with manual alternative cabling.