For our working-load test, a pair of 8D batteries supplied power to the windlasses that pulled a pallet full of bricks along pavement.

Small windlasses handle a wet, backbreaking, sometimes dangerous job that no one wants. Big windlasses, like the verticals we test here, do a job a man likely could not do. When boats get bigger, anchors get bigger and the job of pulling them off the bottom gets huge.

In our continuation of anchor windlass testing, we review a group of verticals a step up from the smaller, less powerful units we’ve tested in the past. These are the big brothers, some able to put more than a ton of force on the anchor rode. If you’re looking to break out a hefty anchor set deep in a muddy bottom and…