I have retrieved 400' with mine, but my line was in two sections connected by a shackle, so the windlass got a little break. Doing 400' will drain the batteries a bit, make sure your engines are already running and your batteries are good, you may want to use an anchor ball to help and put less stress on the windlass, you can also take breaks and back down keeping the anchor at a known position if you use a ball. It can be done, but beware it uses a bit of juice, if you ran electronics all night you may want to run your engines for a few minutes before hand to get some charge back on the batteries. You should be fine, but if your electronics dim or lights dim stop and let the alternators on the engines bring the batteries back, if you keep going with the windlass you will kill the batteries on the water.
