Abstract: A hand winder for winding and unwinding a line, cable or the like comprises a handle portion and a carrier portion for carrying the line or cable. In order to provide for a simple fast and powerful winding-in and paying-out of the line the carrier portion comprises two substantially parallel spaced carrier arms. One end of each arm is secured to one end of a pay-out handle of the handle portion, and protrudes freely therefrom. The handle portion comprises a pull-in handle arranged in parallel spaced relationship to the pay-out handle. The longitudinal axis of the pay-out handle lies substantially in the central perpendicular plane through the carrier arms. In a preferred embodiment the arms are outwardly splayed at an angle of about 6.degree. to a central axis to hinder unintentional winding of a wound line.