"Having several anchors with established reputations fail to set sparked many hours of debate. We questioned our methodology and tried to determine what could be done to insure that all anchors could at least return some results apart from "did not set"."
I stopped using my CQR a longtime ago because of terrible setting performance and a few dragging incidents. I also stopped using my Bruce for similar reasons. My observations, in Maine, NH, MA and Carib anchorages is that most folks never really bother to set an anchor properly. If they don't set properly they would not know that their trusty CQR is lying on its side only partially burried, at best, and acting like a rock on a rope. In normal benign summer conditions the chain and the weight of the anchor (rock on a rope) probably hold most boats and most people are clueless until a squal or 20+ knot winds pipe up. I someimes like to dive on anchors to observe the set and doing this is what caused me to stop using my CQR! On top of the poor performance it was the straw that broke the CQR's back for me.
We actually keep an anchor log and have been doing so for quite a while because we like to anchor whenever we can. I started this log after an incident where every boat in the anchorage, except us and one other, draged during a wind storm with winds of only 35-40 knots. We almost got taken out by a 70 foot Swan dragging its CQR. I was so angry the next morning that I wrote down what each boat was using for ground tackle as I watched as each boat weigh anchor and leave. I now keep track any boats that have dragged anchor around me. I log what anchor they used and to be as fair as possible if I saw them actually set the anchor or not.
I have done my own personal anchor testing and made videos of them setting on an inter tidal zone and my results are very similar to the Sail Magazine results. I have tested and own/owned the Bruce, CQR, Manson Supreme, Fortress, Spade (both Aluminum and Steel) and a Delta Fast Set. I chose the Manson Supreme as my clear winner with the Spade and Fortress as my back ups. The Manson Supreme, Rocna, Spade & Fortress were the clear winners in Sails tests, along with the Hydro Bbble which I don't own, and closely mirror my own very un-scientific results. I have sold my Fast Set and my Bruce and CQR are on loan to friends who don't really anchor much and just needed a lunch hook. My Spade A-80 sits in my garage because I had some real problems with getting it to penetrate a hard bottom. This is most likely due to its very light weight. The S-80 (identical size but in steel) performs much better and does set in tough bottoms.
I wish more people took anchoring & mooring as seriously as I do but they don't. Last season my boat sustained considerable damage because a boat broke free in a wind storm and draged onto my boat due to poor mooring maintenance. I'm sure this clown has similar anchoring manners. Fortunately the damage was cosmetic only but the whole event set me back some serious pocket change with a 2% deductable.
My question is this. Why do people choose to use anchors that have been proven time and time again, in test after test, to be considerably less effective than other commercially available models? I know I bought a CQR because everyone else had one but I tested it myself and decided it was a less than robust anchor for my taste. Do others not actually put a product through the paces and just rely on mass appeal?????
I actually had a few salty types laugh at my "ugly" anchor this summer and I found it to be quite idiotic. One guy actually told me of how he dragged into another boat last year in a "bad" wind storm. This as he laughed at my "ugly" anchor while I was washing he boat at the dock. I only wish I knew what anchor he was using for my log book..
I can't speak highly enough of the performance my Manson Supreme has given me compared to my other anchors. I've never had an anchor set so definitively and imediately and it's just plain jarring. With this anchor, when you back down to set it, there is NO guessing if it set you KNOW it set.. It even bests my Spades by enough to notice a difference.
These new anchors really DO work but I'm sure, like the GPS, it will take some of the salty types a long time to admit it....
![Image](http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/image/64147772.jpg)