Do alot of fishing with my father in law who is no young buck. He cant handle the boat and retrieving anchor hand over hand is becoming to much. I should be the muscle on the boat as I'm 30 years old but he can't control the boat. Looking for a anchor retrieval product I can use in saltwater. I have a 20 ft deck boat. I currently use a 25 lbs anchor with 3/8 in line. I've seen several winches but most only hold 100' 3/16 line. Not enough if anchoring at the jetties or is it. Any advise would be awesome.

I routinely handle my boat, drop & retrieve anchor etc by myself, so you should be able to handle it. However, you can try using a float on the anchor line to make it easier to pull anchor.

There was an article on the subject not too long ago, but it boils down to using the float & boats leverage to get the anchor to the surface, then its easy to pull the line in by hand.

100 ft holds my 19ft Bluewave just fine at POC jetties. As for an easy way to pull, try an electric winch.

@ zeek- I saw a video on you tube regarding the float for anchor and that looks great and inexpensive I will give it a shot
@ fireit- is that 3/16 in line your using at 100 ft. Saw several electric winches but the ones I've seen use 3/16 line.

25 pounds makes me think you need a different style anchor and larger diameter rope which will be easier on your hands. I've been using a rig similar to this on my 20 bay boat for years without issues
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/sto...;classNum=50359

I picked that link just to generally show what it looks like. Mine has 6' of chain and (I think) 1/2" rope.

Add a second smaller diameter rope (1/4") tied to the bottom of the anchor to pull it free from jetty rocks when needed. A salesman at West Marine suggested that to me a long time ago and I haven't lost an anchor to the rocks since.

That is the exact anchor I have! Anchor & 6' chain

Get a Boyle's.