I've gone on record that electric winches are a seriously bad idea, but the awful news from Antigua really takes it up several notches...
As a rigger, I have had a couple of close calls going up a mast when power assisted. Once an owner of a boat I was working on used his windlass to haul me up the mast at what seemed like supersonic speed and it got worse when I arrived at the top, battered and bruised, only to find that the windlass would not turn off and as a result was doing its level best to pull me back down through the mast on the inside.
As I recall it was not a lot of fun... and have never allowed myself to be at the mercy of an electric or hydraulic system (or owner for that matter) while working on a rig since.
Just about every malfunction or problem I've come across over the years involving powered winches and windlasses have been caused by switches or motors shorting in open position where it is impossible to shut them off from the winch/windlass. So if you really must have a powered winch (and ignore the fact that needing one is God's way of saying you need a smaller/simpler boat) you should really sort out some sort of emergency cut off switch within easy reach of the winch or windlass.
