In article ,
"Doug Dotson" wrote:

I have to dissagree. Lighter anchors tend to float and flutter so
that getting then to set where you want is harder. Heavier anchors
drop quickly and tend to stay put while paying out the rode. I have a
Spade anchor that is rated for a boat that is far larger than mine.
It won't set reliably in sand and grass.

I believe you're the one report I've heard of a Spade not hooking well.
I tried ours (aluminum 80) in every "tough" spot I'd found in my travels
and it hooked every time, though I had to go slow in one hard
current-swept sand spot. One or two of them were weedy, and it hooked
without any trouble.

Then again, I've got oversized chain (30') hooked to it. That's twice
the weight of the anchor. Where it hits, it hooks.

I'm also of the "kick it overboard and let the boat settle back"
mentality, which could be a difference. I'll only back down after a few
minutes, and then not very violently.

Last weekend, we were rafted up with 10 boats, about 100k pounds (we're
7k) with the two 40+' big boats. After a wind shift, our anchor, put out
only to angle the raft into the waves, held everyone quite nicely in 15+
knot winds for a couple of days. One poor sod not looking where he was
going, was quite surprised when he was slingshot backwards after trying
to run his outdrive through that line ;-) The big boats' anchors didn't
do squat most of the weekend.

(yeah, hauling anchor was a bear: As far as I can tell, the anchor was
buried in 5 or so feet of that lovely Chesapeake Bay mud on Monday.)

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/