I recently took delivery of a new anchor (in previous thread) and it looks fine. But bigger and heavier than previous one. This one is a 22kg CQR. Added to chain its heavy to lift out with no windlass.

I found a trick some people use. The idea is attach a ring onto the bottom of a float ball, then pass the anchor chain through the ring. Once you motor away the chain slides through the ring and as the angle to the sea floor reduces the chain descends pulling the float ball with it until the upward float force of the float ball pulls out the anchor. As you keep motoring away eventually the shaft of the anchor is jammed in the ring which is floating on the surface and easy to reach and list. It would be hard to do in strong weather, and the float ball has to carry the anchor weight. Funny thing is when I bough my boat in 2007 it had a big red ball and ring on board. Not knowing what do with them they went into garage!

Has anyone tried it?

Heres a short video:

Common technique for power boats. There's a one-way clip on mine (called an "Ezy-lift" I think), which stops the anchor rope from running back through if you don't pull it all the way up past the chain.