What are the relative merits of an anchor winch as opposed to a windlass, for an H260? I guess my question has two facets: the relative ease of installation, and the relative merits of each as an anchor raising and lowering method.
Not having access to an actual H260 to look at, I'm only going from pictures I can find on the web, but it looks to me like it might be easier to install a winch, given the geometry of the H260 anchor locker. But I'm really only guessing. I haven't been able to find any pictures of an H260 with a windlass, which makes me think that it might be difficult to do or somebody would have a picture of it on line, by now.
As for usability, it seems to me that there's probably not a lot of difference. Is there anybody with experience with both types who wants to comment on that? It seems like windlasses are more common on sailboats while winches are more common on power boats. Is that just a matter of taste or are there bona fide reasons that a windlass makes more sense on a sailboat? I suppose manual back-up on a windlass is more straightforward?
Not having access to an actual H260 to look at, I'm only going from pictures I can find on the web, but it looks to me like it might be easier to install a winch, given the geometry of the H260 anchor locker. But I'm really only guessing. I haven't been able to find any pictures of an H260 with a windlass, which makes me think that it might be difficult to do or somebody would have a picture of it on line, by now.
As for usability, it seems to me that there's probably not a lot of difference. Is there anybody with experience with both types who wants to comment on that? It seems like windlasses are more common on sailboats while winches are more common on power boats. Is that just a matter of taste or are there bona fide reasons that a windlass makes more sense on a sailboat? I suppose manual back-up on a windlass is more straightforward?