Many a crew and much material have been very damaged by power winches. I am not sure how you could ever come up with a method to check out all the crew on the use of power winches on a charter dock. The human injuries can be catastrophic. The injuries of one wife at the dock in Antigua come to mind. If you do not fully understand loads, the proper running of lines under load, and the special safety requirements of any powered winch or windlass you should avoid being anywhere near one in use.

All that said the powered winch can be an invaluable tool for the knowledgeable and responsible crew. I am sure I will get flamed by a few here. Long before any of the charter boats had powered winches on them. The careful observer could watch many of the paid captains who knew how to run lines for loads using the windlass to get the main up the last third or so up the mast. If you know what you are doing the windlass can be very effective getting a clear main up the mast.

Again there are many good reasons to not hand a boat over to amateurs with a powered winch aboard.