A good working SL555 is a thing of pleasure! We had one on our last boat. Robust and powerful. We inadvertently picked up a supermarket trolley full of sand with our anchor. It took some effort to lift it but it did it. It was a hell of a job to get the anchor out of it though!Thread ressurection alert- 7 years later.......
Ive just bought a 8mm sl555. I have a 10mm but dont like the idea of 220kg on the bow so when i saw a working sl555 for £100 i thought it worth it just for the gypsie. I didn't believe it was 8mm from pics so took some 8 and 10mm chain with me. The 8mm fitted nicely, but so did the 10mm in the same gypsy
Also did a quick test winching in the chain and timing it at a sensible speed. Worked out to 8.84m per minute which appears faster than some electric winches...
Sailing fair isle had windlass failure but his did have a manual override but wow it was slow. For every forward and back movement on his lever the chain appeared to winch in 2-3 links. I believe he is still winching in his 15m of chain a few weeks later