Drifter,
Sometimes when fishing out of an old friends boat, we'd anchor up, hit the upper part of a slot for a few minutes, then just pull up on the anchor (centered on the back on this particular boat)lifting it off the bottom, let the boat drift directly down stream twenty feet or so and drop the anchor back down. I was wondering that if I had a side pulley system and attempted this maneuver, if by pulling up on the anchor rope and exerting a force on the side of the boat, if it would cause the boat to sway back and forth and not drift directly down stream? Correct me if I'm wrong, but by using the side pully system, basically you are pulling against the side and across the boat as opposed to pulling down the longitudinal axis of the boat. I was wondering how this would effect how the boat would track when pulling up on the anchor.