I towed to the Pocomoke river yesterday, an hour from the house. Getting ready to launch I took off all the tiedowns and the (old fashioned) transom saver. The guy I was fishing with tried to unhook the winch but could not. I went to look at it and showed him how to turn the handle and take the load off the ratchet so I could loosen the strap and take the hook off. As I turned the crank, the small drive gear fell out of the winch, it had broken in half. I couldn't unload the ratchet. We weren't going anywhere because I couldn't get the winch to turn.
Then I remembered I have a 2 speed winch. I changed the gear ratio and unloaded the tension on the ratchet which enabled me to unwind the strap, and we went fishing.
If you have a bass boat, I thoroughly recommend having a 2 speed winch, it gives you options in a failure of this nature.
As far as the gear, it just broke in half. Never seen anything like it.