A cute idea, but I'd get the windlass. (In fact, I did.)

The gotcha is that the hard part of the rode to haul is the last 50 feet plus the anchor.
This is the section that is usually chain, so you'd need an ascender that works on chain.

"Parallax" wrote in message
om...
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........