On Sun, 26 Oct 2008 13:48:01 -0300, "Denis M"
wrote:


While the CQR is still very popular amongst the blue water cruisers, the
Delta (Lewmar), Kobra (Plastimo) and Quickset (Kingston) are getting
interesting reviews. Delta and Quickset are claiming that their anchor can
be self launched.

Plastimo with their Kobra are not yet making that claim?

Is there someone that has used any one of these anchor and can offer
comments


Almost any of these anchors will work well in good conditions, i.e.,
bottom conditions ideal for that anchor. The trick is to find one
anchor suitable for being considered your "primary" that is always
ready to go on the bow, works well in a wide variety of conditions,
sets quickly, and is highly resistant to dragging or tripping out.
After trying a lot of different types over the years, including CQR,
Delta, Danforth, Bruce, etc, I've been using Spade anchors as the
primary on my last two boats. They set quickly in a almost all
conditions, have excellent holding power and do not trip out on wind
shifts. There is a newer, somewhat less expensive anchor called Rocna
which has a design fairly similar to the Spade. The Rocna has also
performed well in several independent tests but I have no first hand
experience with it.

Here is a picture of a Spade S200 (steel, 120 lbs) on the bow of our
Grand Banks 49 trawler, about 80,000 lbs fully loaded:

http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/5...croppedsc6.jpg

It has been our primary anchor now for 4 years and 14,000 nautical
miles of cruising, tested several times in 40 to 50 kt squalls with 3
to 4 ft seas. It has never dragged or pulled out, and almost always
sets the first time.