Edgar wrote:

The main anchor weighed 22 lb and had quite good area of flukes but I
immediately threw it out because the shank was cut from plate only 3/16"
thick.
This was supposed to be Ok for a 38' boat weighing 16000 lb!
. To make matters worse the shank was shaped like a very long triangle,
thinning down to only 1/2" wide at the point where you shackle on the rode.
By my calculation that 1/2" x 3/16" section has a breaking strain of only
just over 1 ton which is totally insufficient.

If the cross section of the anchor shank at the shackle hole
is 1.5 to 2X as big as the cross section of one rode chain link, it
probably won't break first. Bending is another matter.

Brian W