Portable Electric Winches

[Black Countryman]

I sometmes have to recover boats & their launching trollies out of the lake up about a 1 in 6 launch ramp.

Smaller boats are easy, especially when there are other people to help but the safety boat with engine or some of he bigger dinghies like a 15 ft wayfarer are a different matter, particularly if less careful sailors have managed to get a fair bit of water in them. I'm guessing that a dinghy and launch trolley weight about 250kg and maybe 400kg if its been swamped.

I've got away with sticking a chain on my tow hitch in the past but if I'm on my own I tend to move 6 inches, get out, walk to the back, check everything and then go and do another 6 inches and so on.

I've spotted portable electric winches on ebay from about £60 upwards and wonder if anyone has used them and are they worth having?

[zildjian]