retrieve a series from the bow? are you setting it from the bow? or moving it from stern to bow only when you go to retrieve?
Setting from the bow is generally a bad idea.
moving from stern to bow is possible but going to be a bit tricky - I generally don't recommend it. But if you do that, just
motor straight ahead and pull it in by hand, and yes a second roller would be great (also useful for other uses) but does not need anything more complex than that.
I have twice used
electric winches/windlasses to retrieve, and neither went all that well.
When we tested drogues on steve dashew's
boat we used an really LARGE
electric stern
winch to retrieve them. The series
drogue burned it up.
On Hawk, we once also tried with our
lewmar 3500 lb (oversized) windless, on bow and we took a retrieval line up the
deck to it, and it would trip out (overheat sensor).
The loads peak when you start coming down waves (and decline as you go up the backsides). The peaks can be pretty high. . . . .depends on how long you wait for the storm to decline before retrieving. We tended to wait until winds dropped below 30ish and I was surprised it still tripped the windless but it did. But when you look at
anchoring loads (lower than most people think) vs
drogue loads (higher than most people think) it makes sense.
Everyone I know who uses series 'regularly' just develops a rhythm for getting it in over the stern - pull when going up back of wave, hold while going down front. It takes some time, but is sort of nice brainless
work out in the
cockpit after a storm.