Mate, I have an electric winch on my 685, and I reckon I have not used it for quite a few months. Indeed, frankly, it annoys the crap out of me because it is slow, when in deep water. I think there must be many better things to spend that money on!
I now use a reef pick most of the time on floats - no time now to fill in the details on how that works, but there are ways to use your anchor without risking having to cut it off. I'm sure you'll get plenty of good advice, or I'll dish some out tomorrow!
Cheers,
Tim