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Old 09-08-2014, 12:38 AM   #278
Djbangi
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 211
Manyboats,

When I last looked (which was a long time ago) Manson, I think on the section of their website for the Supreme, listed about a dozen anchor tests that had been published by magazines, I think they were all pdfs - so you could download them all. The list was not exclusive as it did not go back as far as Fortress' early tests in SF Bay in the early 90's and it possibly did not include the 4 or 5 articles written by John Knox in PBO as they were 1998-2003 (or thereabouts). He did publish some a bit later (which may or may not be included). It also did not include tests published in those magazines with a small readership. 2 or 3 tests were conducted by Voile et Voileurs and were published inconveniently for those of us linguistically handicapped in French but either Yachting Monthly or World carried English translations (which I think might be in the Manson references).

Interestingly some of the tests that Manson did include did not have the Supreme as 'the best' but as you point out newer anchors tend to come out better than older ones so it was always up there.

The tests cover a huge cross section of 'techniques', cover most of the anchors we see today (and some that did not last the rigours of the market place) but as you point out generally come to the same conclusion that newer anchors (the oldest perhaps being the Fortress) are better, commonly by a factor of 2, than the more traditional models. Most tests studiously did not look at mud, except Practical Sailor, nor weed and tend to focus on clean hard seabeds - and as Fortress might imply(?) developments or improvements appear to have looked at this part of the market as if 'build an anchor for a hard seabed to enjoy world domination' - hence the very sharp toes that are now 'de rigeur'

Practical Sailor has had many tests and they can be easily accessed through their archives - if you are a subscriber. A previous post did make me wonder - if no-one takes any notice of magazine tests who on earth are the gullible readership (wasting their hard earned cash) who buy Practical Sailor and read Panbo?

I would agree that 'penetration' of the overall results 'that newer anchors are better than older ones' has not been very deep or widespread as many of the old salts still appear to be perfectly happy with CQRs, Deltas and Bruces (and their copies), whether they have a little runabout, a monster plastic fantastic or even a Trawler..

In many respects I find the anchor industry fascinating and unique (for a whole variety of reasons) but I cannot get to grips with this idea of (some of them, current company excluded) in pursuing a vendetta against 'each other' when the main market is CQR, Bruce, Deltas - and worse thousands of copies, clones and knock-offs, of unknown steel and unknown origin.

And I reiterate, I think Fortress have done us a service as I was totally unaware at the weakness of many of the designs in soft mud. I had always assumed most anchored at least 'worked'. It now appears this was an illusion. It has made me wonder about the performance of some of these same anchors in soft sand - though to be honest I would now tend to extrapolate and question or be doubtful.


Edit:

For Mansons catalogue of independent tests look here:


http://manson-marine.co.nz/SitePages...ndept_test.htm
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