[Espeefan]

I was also going to say if you want a compact little ESC, so you can feather the winch speed, from remote, then a servo circuit board would work really well for that. In fact a servo, itself, would make a great winch. Convert it to continuous rotation and you'd be set. You'd only have to make a cable drum, or throw a chain drive sprocket on the output shaft of the servo, to wind or spool a separate drum. Compact, plenty of power, if you gear it right, or pick the right servo, and proportional control.