Yes. As I explained in my reply to @Neeves deleted post I can't leave it in drive. Min speed with the 2 engines in drive is 3.2/3.4 kts so I'd overrun the anchor in less than 10 seconds. I shunt in snd out of drive, one engine at a time but I'm doing everything blindly and aometimes it works and more often it doesn't.
I have a wireless remote but it doesn't really help. I need to be on the flybridge to control the throttles. I fitted an expensive Quick chain counter so I can retrieve from the helm and know when the anchor is clear of the bottom. Bigger windlass, under hull camera seems easier option.
And so you get ahead of the cable, it goes slack and the boat's head pays off and you end up sideways to the direction of the cable and she stays like that until the cable comes under tension again and pulls her into line?
Bear in mind this is a catamaran almost 7m across the beam and the anchor roller is almost 3m back from the bow. So in shallow water, if you're sideways to the direction of the anchor, there's every liklihood the chain will scrape the hill.
My thinking was with bigger winch no need to be near the engine controls - just lift entirely on windlass working from bow when solo (like I do on monohull)
Yes, I understand that you must keep the hulls parallel to the cable to prevent that happening.
Yeah. I asked about this anchor retrieval issue on a Leopard Facebook group some while ago. The people in the group are all in the US and a few who single hand said they use Dock Mate or Yavht Controller. Not cheap and I think I'll try the camera approach first.
The basic problem is the boat is not designed for single handing so whatever solution I find will be a workaround.
Agree there is a knack to lifting anchors buy hand.
See the final line in the OP
For the spare/auxiliary anchor which has to be deployed and retrieved by hand.
He'll probably tell me it was designed for Paddy Nomates boating alone when Bean an Ti
When you do have a crew, exactly what part do they play in this operation?
One of us operates the helm and one of us the windlass. The windlass operator instructs the helmsman what to do. The helm position and the windlass position are reasonably close to each other so we can usually hear each other easily enough. We also have a forward camera so that the helmsman can see the windlass operator on the MFD and get hand instructions if the wind makes it difficult to hear.