The bottom line is most average sailors need more then one anchor, which will be holding power specific for the bottom they're over. Scope and proper installation has to be assumed for reasonable comparisons.
The reason the fisherman style was in service for centuries was it was big, heavy and had enough design attributes to work in about any bottom. It would set, reset and break out with reliability. Plow style anchors are limited, much more so then more traditional fluke styles. Variations on the plow really have improved them on certain bottom types, permitting them to be much lighter, but the basic rules of deployment and weight still come to bear when they are on bottoms they aren't well suited, which is why weight is the really important issue if you want to stay put.
If your boat is big enough to warrant a fat ass anchor, pretty much anything will do in most situations, but this isn't when you really need an anchor. No one thinks about their anchor when stopped for lunch or parked in a secluded cove, unless you're trying to set one that doesn't like the bottom it's in. Most of the usual choices will do, assuming it's able to cope with the bottom type and is deployed properly (the biggest hurtle with some types). A hunk of concrete with a chain run through it, will do in these situations, given enough scope.
The problems are that some of the plows are really easy to break out if the current or wind shifts, so you need two to insure you stay put. Others foul easily, others limited to bottom types. Tie a small block Chevy to a chain and drop it over the side and watch what happens! It hasn't any special design considerations to make it "stick" to the bottom, but it's 600 pounds of iron does a really good job.
Now of course, most pleasure yachts can't afford a 600 pound anchor on it's pointy end, but this is the very reason the old fisherman was so popular for centuries. The fluke shapes, the stock, yes, but the shear weight of the damn thing really is what did the job.
Maybe a deployable ballast casting on a cable or chain. It keeps the weight of the anchor low and you have more then you need regardless of what might come while you're sleeping.
12-31-2011, 07:09 PM
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