i went through this a couple years ago. watched all the independent or other
reviews i could. I have Roca and
Mantus onboard. 43ft
monohull, with a pilothouse so my windage is higher.
don't get stainless, was something i ran into a lot. stainless is weaker than galvanized
steel, and suffer from crevice
corrosion if the conditions are right. see some bad stories with this. the boat came with a 45lb stainless plow anchor and i didn't see any structural issues, but there was rust. so I'm not sure how this applies for the majority of normal every day
anchoring. the dissimilar metals from stainless anchor and galvanized chain IS a thing however so inspect often, specifically stainless swivels.
for a regular anchor it should be a size bigger than for the
charts for Roca and Manson, based on everything i read and experiences i found. keep that with a grain of
salt as everyone's boat is different. two or 3 sizes up for a storm/hurricane anchor. i do know what they advise which i will address shortly. for 43ft it should be a 60-80ish anchor. storm anchor should be 80-120lbs.
I have a 110lb
Mantus anchor hanging off the bow now. I have yet to use this anchor, i ordered it and it was late and didn't get delivered on time, I haven't anchored since. I have no doubts it will hold, However I'm a little worried about how difficult it will be to recover if it digs itself deep. was bought as the storm anchor. I am Alaskan and intend to sail home once im out of the military. we have "Wiliwaw" winds that are sudden bursts up to 100knts from winds funneled through gaps in the mountains. im in
hurricane country now so i expect/hope it to be good for those requirements as well.
Stern anchor is a 35lb Roca. i tested a similar anchor for the
Navy on small
boats. i bought this after the first of those tests to stress the anchor systems with my larger boat. we were looking for an anchor system that allowed a shorter
scope. 35lb was a little bigger than recommended size for the RHIBs we used, to allow for short scope. the problem was it would burry itself hard and be difficult to retrieve. because there was no winches on those
boats and everything was hand recovered, not enough
anchoring training ect, more than a few anchor lines got cut. the next order for anchors was a different style that was cheaper, although we used the remaining rocas on our larger boats.
using the 35lb on my 43ft worked well actually, held me all but once however these were mostly in a protected bay so no extreme tests. mostly sand bottom. the only time I dragged was in soupy mud and it wouldn't stick for nothing that day. this is why I use it for a stern anchor now. once i rafted up for a yacht club thing. the extra weight really dug in the anchor. sand bottom. when it was time to leave a big
power boat had drifted over the anchor so i couldn't use the boat to help pull it up. my buddy had to dive down and dig it out by hand. it was so deep he couldn't see anything but the chain and the tip of the shank. i believe a larger anchor would have spread the load out more and not buried itself so deep, however it was pretty impressive that it held in that scenario. the Roca has a rock slide on the shank. i haven't had to use it but if you move your
rode to the slide slot it allows the
rode to reverse and assist pulling out the anchor. i like the idea of this feature, however it worries me that if the wind shifted you could accidently pull out your own anchor theoretically.
currently looking into a 60-80ish for my everyday anchor. I will go with Mantus again. the 110 Mantus bolts together, this lets me take it apart for
storage which i think makes it a really good storm anchor. one of the problems i have with the 110 is the big hoop is in the way of adding a
bowsprit, although its also what helps it anchor fast. was thinking maybe one of Mantus new ringless designs may be good however i haven't looked up info or testing on it yet.
between the Rocna and Mantus i feel both were equally able. I went with Mantus because they have more weight in the tip for faster anchoring. again originally was looking for anchors that offered more precision with a short rode. the bolt together design made more sense for a storm anchor for
storage requirements. there was also issues with the metallurgy of the Rocna at the time supposedly. also keep in mind my choices were based more on
west coast weather with a max of Alaskan winds. here on the
east coast im not fully certain what i should expect with weather and bottom conditions.
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