a tale of two anchors and a bit of critical thinking...

One problem with buying into the out-of-control-consumerism gig is that the first thing to go is anything that passes for critical thinking. Or, in other words, you quit thinking...

For instance, here are two anchors...

The Bruce (or clone thereof)

And what seems to be the current nextgen flavor of the month...

They're actually both good anchors.

From where I sit the main difference between the two designs is really about cost and a whole lot of hype. As far as price goes, the current street price for a Lewmar Claw (the Bruce clone) is about $130 for a 44# anchor while the current hip nextgen is around $520 for a 45# anchor.

Where anchors are concerned there has always been a lot of hype of both the positive and negative type which roughly translates to the "Our anchor is better but if you use the other guy's anchor you will die because..." approach. Which is then backed up by anchor tests that bear no resemblance to how anchors actually work in the real world and done in such a way to show their anchor is better. Of course, if that doesn't work then plain old lying about the competiors anchor with made up horror stories is not unheard of (something you might want to keep in mind when you hear word-of-mouth about failure rates and suchlike).

No real science involved but a whole lot of very impressive con-artistry.

The yachting press with no inclination to actually do research or test such things like anchors tend to rely on what the anchor companies give them and regurgitate whole press releases as fact. There are exceptions to this but they are far and few between. The lesson here is if the folks who review gear are less than critical you're going to have to do it on your own.

Anyway, the real test of the pudding is using stuff in the real world and, being an interested observer (spelled not a big fan of boats dragging down on me), I do pay a lot of attention to how people anchor and what sort of ground tackle they're using when they do it. As such adhoc research goes my findings are that the nextgen folks don't seem to drag any less or more than those with older design anchors providing they anchor sensibly.

The sad part of that last sentence is there seems no shortage of folks anchoring senselessly...

So, as far as I'm concerned, the real difference between the $130 anchor and the $520 anchor is just $390 and not so much about performance at all. If you really want to improve your anchoring spend an afternoon working on your technique and sorting out some bad habits you may have acquired.

The Swallows pretty much said all that needed to be said about anchoring back in 1951...