While hauling my anchor recently, I realized that at some point in the
future I would be arthritis ridden enough to lust for a windless
instead of the cutie on the next boat. Since I hate silly gadgets I
will resist as long as possible so here is USELESS IDEA #3721:

A Gibbs Ascender is a device used in vertical caving that slides one
way on a rope and not the other way, sort of like a cam cleat with a
shell around it. Have a heavy duty version made for an anchor rode
from stainless steel. Attach about 50' of 1/2" braided line to it and
lead the braided line to one of your winches through a fairlead. Take
3 wraps on the winch and pull in 3', take off the wraps and the weight
causes it to slide down the anchor rode, take 3 more wraps and
repeat........