Here you can see why Yahoo has two winch groups, rather than one 8^)

My advice is that you study what people have to say on both groups
carefully, take those with an obvious bone to pick with a grain of salt,
assess the finances and available expertise, and make the most
appropriate choice for your club or soaring operation. Also, take a
careful look at retrieve winches, they allow you to start off with a
single or double drum winch, and provide a straightforward upgrade path
to higher launch rates when justified, at only a slight cost in launch
height.

And, I've gone out of my way to spend some time sitting in, poking
around, and getting launched by updated Gehrlein, Tost, Supacat, and
Skylaunch winches. Skylaunch has a proven design, and gives you the
option of buying individual components, kits, or completely built
winches. Yes, the basic configuration of a Skylaunch is similar to a
Gehrlein (though most Gehrleins have one drum). With an
engine/transmission swap, upgraded drum, changes to the cable rollers
and guillotine, and some amount of tinkering, a Gehrlein can be made
quite usable. A Skylaunch simply gets you there quicker and in more
comfort, though of course, at higher cost.

Roman of Roman's Design is a mechanical genius, he has helped upgrade a
number of the old Gehrleins in Southern California, and his new winch is
an automated marvel which has started test launching. It costs a bit
more than a Skylaunch, and may well end up being a viable alternative.
Roman also recognizes that finances are an issue for a lot of clubs, so
he is currently designing a simpler lower cost single drum model which
may be a better fit for many.

As for Hydrowinch, well, I'd like to have an Antares, but I'll likely
never be able to afford to buy or maintain one...

Marc

Bill Daniels wrote:
The skylaunch is a cosmetic update of the 1960's US Gerhlein winches and
suffers from the same major shortcomings. If you still like it, save $50k -
$75k by spending a couple of thousand for an old Gerhlein and fix it up.

If you'd like a modern, state of the art winch, take a look at these from US
winch buiders:

http://www.romansdesign.com/
and
http://www.hydrowinch.com

Bill Daniels