We're back! 10 days of sailing and daily anchor testing. Brought down
a 33 lb. aluminum Spade and borrowed equivalent Delta, CQR and Bruce
anchors from BVIYC. Primary rode was 3/8" all chain and secondary was
40' of 5/16 with three strand. We tested setting, basic holding power
and long term drag under pressure on both rodes in sand, sand over
grass, mud/sand mix and muck. It took about 2 hours a day with all 7
crew working. Two in the dinghy changing anchors, two snorkeling with
cameras, measuring rods and marker buoys, helmsman, windlass operator
and note takers.

The test sites were Cistern Point, Cooper Island (grass over sand); Dead
man Bay, Peter Island (grass over sand); Green Key (loose sand); Great
Cruz bay (mud/sand mix) and Hurricane Hole, St. John (muck).

The procedure was to drop an anchor and mark where it landed with a buoy
(pool noodle tied to a 5# lead weight). Set it and drop another buoy
and measure the distance it took to set. Let out to 7:1, back down
slowly then up to 2,200 RPM for 5 minutes and measure the drag distance.
Hook on the dynamometer, increase RPM until it broke out and record
the maximum rode tension. If it didn't back out we shortened rode until
it did recording maximum tension and ratio. We then reset and pulled
from about 90º to the side to see how it realigned to the new pull.

Basic findings:
We found little difference between all chain and rope/chain except on
extremely short (under 4:1) rodes.
The Bruce set fastest overall in all but grass over sand but drug first
every time.
Delta and CQR set and held about the same (holding considerably better
than the Bruce) but when pulled off center the CQR realigned itself
better without breaking out when pulled at an angle.
The Spade required a little more attention to get it to set but held
considerably better on shorter scope than all the others in all bottoms.
It also realigned itself with less position loss than the others.

We found that you have to let the Spade sit for a few seconds and let
the wind push the boat back before it would right itself. In stronger
wind it was necessary to slowly let out scope to give it time to start
to set. Once the bow came up into the wind it set perfectly every time.
If you back down before it has a chance to right itself it just skids
on its side.

I will post pictures, a cleaned up spread sheet and add more detailed
results on my anchor site once I quit rocking.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com