A couple of weeks ago, my friend Gary called and updated me on what he was doing. He'd been to California to visit his boat, a Cape George 31. A friend of his was doing some work on it, including replacing the manual windlass with an electric one.
Now I can understand why Gary might want an electric windlass. He's getting older. But I've found our electric windlass quite a bother and, at times, no great savoir from heavy lifting. There are two foot-switches by which you raise or lower your anchor. When those switches are attacked by corrosion, they stop working.
Then you start working, lifting whatever chain you've sent overboard, along with the 45-pounds of steel that is your anchor -- all by means of your leg and back muscles.
So I said to Gary: "Gee, I'm looking for a way to replace my electric windlass with a manual one."
Just the other day, this arrived by UPS delivery. The UPS man used a hand truck to get it down the driveway and up onto our front step. He left it to me to find a way to get it inside the house. If I shackled it to an anchor chain, it might work that way. It weighs 20 more pounds than our best anchor.

But I won't do that. I'll take off our electric windlass and mount this on Robin's foredeck in its place. This is a beastly machine. You place a lever in that shiny wheel on the left and move it back and forth and the bronze wheel to the right turns, pulling your anchor chain. The longer your lever, the less effort weighing anchor takes.
Thanks, Gary, from the bottom of my previously aching back! I can't wait for the next time we drop the hook.