Mama,
As I remember it Lee Smith lost consciousness as a result of the lift; the sea anchor was always launched from the pilot's port window; two main innovations after the accident were the installation of the 'cling rope' (because of the difficulty of finding a hand-hold after a capsize) and the painting of the underside of the S61 to make it visible once it (inevitably) turned over.
A long time ago and the memory fades with age but didn't the casevac (with a broken leg) make it to the dinghy leaving Lee attempting to cling on to the upturned hull?
Lee's decision to ditch might have been influenced by fatal accidents (around that time) caused by spindle failures on the S61.
After that accident a loss of (blade) pocket was viewed as an incident that did not warrant a ditching. A similar policy change occured after an S61 was ditched because of a loss of a fan-cooler-belt (the flight manual was subsequently amended).
Jim