A winch is provided for taking or winding ropes, cables, and the like. The winch has a drum, a lower crown, a rope groove and an upper crown having a socket which has a fluted cavity. The fluted cavity is configured to cooperate with a pin of a winch handle, which when turned rotates the drum. In an embodiment, the fluted cavity has a groove having a canted coil spring positioned therein. The pin on the winch handle has a groove placed to correspond with the depth of the groove when placed into the socket. The combination allows the winch handle to latch to the winch and to resist unintended separation between the two.