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Clyde Quick Release Plough (CQR)

So named due to its resemblance to a traditional agricultural plough (or more specifically two ploughshares), many manufacturers produce a plough-style design, all based on or direct copies of the original CQR (Secure), a 1933 design by mathematician Geoffrey Ingram Taylor.

Owing to a now well established history, ploughs are particularly popular with cruising sailors and other private boaters. They are generally good in all bottoms, but not exceptional in any. The CQR design has a hinged shank, allowing the anchor to turn with direction changes rather than breaking out, and also arranged to force the point of the plough into the bottom if the anchor lands on its side.

Another more recent commercial design, the Delta uses an unhinged shank and a plough with specific angles to develop slightly superior performance. Both can be stored in most regular anchor roller systems.

Owing to the use of lead or other dedicated tip-weight, the plough is heavier than average for the amount of resistance developed, and may take a slightly longer pull to set thoroughly.

The genuine CQR and Delta brands are now owned by Lewmar, although they have both been on-sold several times during their lifetimes.

Delta

The Delta was developed in the 1980's for commercialisation by British marine manufacturer Simpson-Lawrence. The Delta is a fixed shank plow, as opposed to the articulating variant of the plow concept (i.e. the CQR) of decades earlier. The need for articulation was avoided with more careful balancing of the anchor's weight and shaping of the rear end of the fluke in order to better guide the fluke through the setting process. The basic shape nonetheless remains a plow, with a brake-pressed plate heel and solid steel cast tip (welded together to form the only joint attaching the tip to the rest of the anchor) which comprises the fluke. Like other plows, this design relies on tip-weight for ballast and setting, an inefficiency which detracts from fluke surface area and ultimate holding power.

The genuine Delta brand is now owned by Lewmar. The anchor has been out of patent for a few years now, and poor copies abound, most of worse performance and questionable construction quality.

The Delta utilizes a high tensile steel shank, an element which is typically the first to be sacrificed in the pursuit of cost savings by knock-off producers.