On Sat, 20 Jun 2009 10:47:26 -0700, "Capt. JG"
wrote:

I've always thought they look kinda flimsy, but they seem to work. Of
course, my boat is 1/2 the weight. The biggest boat I've used Danforths on
as a primary was a Catalina 27

Danforths are very strong and have excellent holding power once they
are properly set. We've anchored our 49 ft, 70,000 lb trawler all
day in 25 kt winds, and 3 to 4 ft seas on a 35 lb Danforth. Bottom
conditions were ideal hard sand however and we used 25 ft of chain and
lots of scope.

The problem with Danforths is getting them to set in the first place
in anything other than ideal conditions. They will not set from a
moving boat, tending to plane through the water instead. They will
usually not set in a grassy or rocky bottom, and worst of all they
frequently do not reset if the boat gets turned around by a wind or
current change.