This is one of the most dangerous ideas I have seen in a while on this
newsgroup. Here is a very typical scenario. Husband and wife on 45'
boat...wind blowing 20K(standard for the islands). Chain is retrieved
using the suggested idea to the point where the scope is 2 to 1 or less.
Anchor unsets and starts to drag. Now he drags over the scope of the boat
behind his and entangles his anchor.....SMASH there goes the front of the
boat that didn't try to cut corners, had all the proper equipment, minding
his own business and we now have two bent boats and a lawsuit. Not to
mention the possibility of those two boats, tangled like two lovebugs, go
smashing into a third boat. Lesson....pay for the proper equipment to
accommodate your handicap or don't leave the dock.
My two cents
Bruce

"Jeff Morris" jeffmo@NoSpam-sv-lokiDOTcom wrote in message
...
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........