Abstract: A winch assembly including a brake mechanism. The winch assembly may include a winch housing and a shaft extending through the winch housing. The brake mechanism of the winch assembly may include a ratchet coupled to the shaft and including a plurality of teeth and a pawl with a pawl shoulder coupled to the winch housing and engaging one of the plurality of teeth of the ratchet to lock the shaft from rotating in an unwinding direction. A pawl controller may be coupled to the shaft and include a notch to engage the shoulder of the pawl and bias the pawl away from the plurality of teeth of the ratchet when the shaft is rotated in a winding direction, thereby reducing noise associated with the pawl contacting the plurality of teeth of the ratchet.