The 11/2008 Practical Sailor Anchor Tests

The November issue of Practical Sailor  has a report on three new anchors being tested on a beach in Chile. These anchors were the Manson Supreme, the Manson Ray, and the Rocna.

Each were hugely oversize for the reported 30,000 pound displacement sailboat, but as the editors described the situation, prompt setting and holding in an extreme area for anchoring would necessitate much heavier anchors. Super Max anchors were not invited to be tested. It appears that the rebuttals that usually appear to any of the PS tests by Creative Marine have soured PS on testing Super Max anchors.

If Super Max anchors had been tested, we believe a 75 pound SM would have taken the prize for setting and holding, because its fluke would have dug into the rocky soil on the beach just as you can see in the pictures shown at our website under "Dry Sand Tests". Furthermore, the area of the fluke that penetrates the soil would have been larger than any of the three tested. It would have dug in as in our sand tests and as the Manson Ray did, but the fluke area of the Super Max penetrating the soil would have been three times that of the Ray. In the short scope testing, the Super Max Adjustable would have set and penetrated immediately with scopes of 2 to 1.

We have noted that the Manson Supreme and the Rocna and other anchors with a roll bar have one basic problem other than stowage in a bow roller, and that is setting in a soft mud bottom. If the roll bar anchor lands on its roll bar when dropped, in soft mud the roll bar could and probably would sink into the mud, not allowing the anchor to right itself, and the shape of the fluke would prevent it from ever righting once pulled by the vessel. The same thing would happen if the anchor had been set originally correctly, but then with a 180 degree reversal caused by wind or tide the anchor would again sink its roll bar and then sliver across the bottom with no holding power whatsoever.