nomadwilly wrote:
All the roll bar anchors I know of are good but I see no justification to elevate them to religious heights.*
I don't either.* We're talking about an anchor here, about as rude and crude a device as one can have. It's not an artificial heart or an airplane wing.* But after becoming convinced through our own and others' experiences that the Bruce*had to go*we went looking for something better.* As I have said before, we started this search with no preconcieved notions about what would be better, only that there had to be something out there that was.
When we learned of the so-called "new generation" anchors we started looking into them.* And in the dozens*and*dozens*of articles, reviews, independent testimonials we read,*the Rocna consistently came out on top for fast setting*and deep burial, and almost*total reliability in terms of holding.* This from the Dashews down*to Joe Boater.* We read about other anchors, too--- I'd never even heard of the Rocna before this and it looked really weird to the point where we weren't*convinced that it would even work despite all the testimonials to the contrary.
And all the reviews and articles and testimonials*about other anchors were, for the most part. favorable, too.* Like I said, they aren't artificial hearts, just lumps of metal that are supposed to hold your boat in place.* And most of them will do that very well under "normal" conditions even the piss-poor Bruce.*
But..... every one of them, after talking about what they liked about this or that anchor, then had a "but......" which led into* a description about the*features they didn't like.* So we became a lot more interested in the "buts" than in the other stuff.
And it didn't take us long to notice that there were far fewer "buts" in the articles and reviews and testimonials about the Rocna than there were in the writeups about the the other anchors.* In fact the most common "but" was the one that started the sentence about the price.
My wife and I put a lot more stock in what users say about something, be it a car, camera, toaster, or anchor, than what the manufacturers say.* The manufacturer's gonna say it's great no matter what.
So in the end, given the almost universal praise for the Rocna's performance and reliabilty, plus things like the videos and anchor tests--- which we took with a grain of salt but they still give you some useful information--- we decided on the Rocna.
Seven or eight years later, whichever it is, we have no regrets at all about our decision.* The anchor has held in situations where we know the Bruce would have failed, so we have definitely succeeded in meeting our primary objective, which was to find something more reliable than the Bruce.*
The*Rocna*does everything all the independent user testimonials we read talked about.* So at this point, we still maintain that of all the designs currently out there, the Rocna is still*the best*for*the*broadest*range of applications.* The Manson is close but has some design features that we--- and the reviews we read--- feel make it a bit less effective than the Rocna.*
The Sarca*was an unknown as at the time it was not even mentioned in the*material about the "new generation" anchors.* However now that we're aware of them and have seen them*the Sarca has some basic design features*we don't care for compared to the Rocna.* Nevertheless it gets high marks all around and users like PeterB in Australia have had excellent results with it.* So if we were in the market for a new anchor today, the Sarca is probably what we would get, not because we think the design is better than the Rocna but because of the still uncertain quality of the Rocnas made*today.
Everybody has their favorite anchor design.* The Rocna is ours.* Does it matter t us*if other people prefer something else?* Nope.* Will we ever change anchor types?* Nope, unless the Rocna starts letting us down the way the Bruce did.* If it does, it's history.* But so far we've been given no reason to think we made a bad choice.
Do I think*there's a better anchor than a Rocna?* Absolutely.* A D10 Cat block would hold us just swell I think.* But it would be a bitch to stow on the pulpit and I doubt our windlass would be able to retrieve it.
-- Edited by Marin on Saturday 19th of November 2011 01:02:25 AM