PS has made their anchor resetting test from 2013 available free of charge in their latest email. Most of this we already know but it's good to see it confirmed in controlled comparative 90- and 180 degree veering conditions. Basically, the fisherman, CQR and Claw-type anchors performed poorly, the convex anchors performed reasonably, the roll bar concave had a little difficulty resetting occasionally, the slotted shank pulled out, and the "Shallow concave" (Spade and Ultra) performed the best. Good to know. 




Vice Commodore, OCC 

+x

 

Daria Blackwell - 3 Jan 2021

PS has made their anchor resetting test from 2013 available free of charge in their latest email. Most of this we already know but it's good to see it confirmed in controlled comparative 90- and 180 degree veering conditions. Basically, the fisherman, CQR and Claw-type anchors performed poorly, the convex anchors performed reasonably, the roll bar concave had a little difficulty resetting occasionally, the slotted shank pulled out, and the "Shallow concave" (Spade and Ultra) performed the best. Good to know. 

Hi Daria,
Thanks for this. PS does a service making these evaluations more widely available.
To me, this further documents that the old generation anchors (much as I loved them and had many years of successful anchoring with them) should be put out to pasture as lawn ornaments. The new generation of anchors are just far safer in all ways.
It also documents that some of the new generation anchors occasionally have trouble re-setting after a wind shift: Rocnas are the one I have personally heard multiple reports of (3 from OCC members among others). I believe the videos of sv panope on utube (google) do a good job of documenting this (I am internet challenged at the moment, but I believe this url will lead you to one: https://www.morganscloud.com/2019/05/24/anchors-resetting-failures-with-rocna-and-some-thoughts-on-vulcan2/).
Reports such as the Practical Sailor evaluations are not getting much press, (probably ruffle the feathers of anchor advertisers) but reports are slowly creeping into the media about the occasional re-setting issues.
Thanks, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy