As keeping your boat securely connected to the bottom is really important for the safety and well being of all distance cruisers, an ongoing discussion of issues about gear and technique can be very helpful. Ground tackle has been dramatically improving over the past few years, and as a result techniques for deploying that tackle have been modified.

This is a great place for members to share their experience with newer anchors and related gear, tricky anchorages, and tips for effective technique.

And if you have a great story to tell, please share it. We all know that anchoring is a spectator sport, and we all love a good story.

Vice Commodore, OCC 

Before going to the Deep South, I exchanged my 60lb (27kg) CQR for an oversized 40kg Rocna (this for a 20 ton 49 ft yacht). It changed my life. With the CQR I had to re-lay about 1 in 4 times and, except in settled and windless conditions, I didn 't sleep too well having had the CQR drag on several occasions (and by most standards I use a lot of scope when room allows).
I must have layed the Rocna over 200 times and have only had to re-lay on about 3 occasions. I have anchored in kelp, on rock and in soft, soft mud. Even in winds in excess of 55 knots (www.blog.mailasail.com/mina2/277) it has not dragged once (yet).

There are drawbacks however:
1. You have to motor back on to it to set it GENTLY. The Rocna digs in so quickly and abruptly that otherwise you are in danger of pulling the windlass out of the deck.
2. You need a really powerful windlass to bring it up as it often reappears with an additional 40kg of mud attached to it (for which the best solution is an ordinary gardeners dutch hoe on a stick, which is also the best tool, if sharpened, for slicing kelp off the anchor chain).

Tim Barker, S/Y Mina2