Last year, I have sold the Spade company.. I’m not longer working in the anchor field.. then.. I do not have any more competitor..

As you say: The Manson appears to be a copy of the Rocna

But WHO COPY WHO ? the Rocna copy:
- the concave shape of the Spade
- the ballast-less principle of the Sword anchor
- the “roll Bar” of the Bügel (already patented by Peter Bruce)
- the shank of the Delta
- the fixation of the “roll bar” of the Supreme Manson..

Secondly the supposed comments from Powerandmotoryacht magazine raise some eyebrows. West Marine themselves have a table in their 2007 catalog about this testing. Their comments on the anchors Alain mentioned read like this:

Manson: “In six pulls never held less than 2,300lb, and held over 5,000lb three times. Seemed to engage the bottom immediately.”
(The Manson appears to be a copy of the Rocna incidentally – Rocna don’t seem happy)

Spade: “Somewhat mixed results with three OK pulls, and three maximum pulls. Set immediately each time.”

Rocna: “Superb, consistent performance. Held a minimum of 4,500lb and engaged immediately.”

By the way on the Delta this was their summary: “Variable results ranging from around 1,500lb. to 4,500lb. Drags at limit.”

Honestly I will trust these as the source. Rock on.

By no way the Rocna was the first in the test.

Read below the test report written by Jeffrey Moser and Abner Kingman for Powerandmotoryacht magazine (the complete report can be read on: http://powerandmotoryacht.com/gearreview/boat-anchor-test/index5.aspx)

The comments are as folows:

the Manson proves the Kiwis know anchors, as it set quickly each time and held to a maximum of 5,332 pounds, releasing and dragging only once.

the Spade engaged quickly and held to 5,000 pounds in two nonconsecutive pulls, topping out at 5,236 pounds. (it should be noted that the tested Spade was only 2/3 of the surface area of the Rocna)

Rocna : The anchor tended to drag at first but finally set each time and held once to 5,000 pounds

I had a look at your website and the excellent video – very interesting.

I went to the London boat show on Sunday 7th and watched the anchoring demonstration there. They were showing techniques for laying and tripping an anchor both from the bow and the stern using a gantry over a sandpit. I noticed that they used a Bruce anchor for the demo and sure enough at one point the anchor refused to set and in order to move the demo on the commentator had to walk over and physicall set the anchor – much to the amusement of the gathered crowd

To clarify, this testing was conducted by West Marine and written up in both SAIL and Yachting Monthly. The two magazines have different articles. Both are available from our website (see “independent reviews”).

To be fair to the Buegel with regard to price, the WASI tested was stainless steel. Clearly stainless is more expensive than galvanized steel.

Having said that, one should not expect a correlation between money and effectiveness. The cost of an anchor is in its build quality, not performance. It would be possible to build an anchor which would perform very well in a test and be very cheap – but it would be a rubbish product.

This showed the best performing anchors as the Fortress, Spade, and Rocna – the Delta that you have chosen was middle of the field and the big surprsie was that the evergreen CQR was shown to be useless !