There are more criteria for choosing the right ground tackle than simply your vessel's size and displacement.

Without really meaning to, over the past six years, Practical Sailor has acquired a considerable reputation for testing anchors and anchoring gear. On more than a dozen occasions anchor makers have sent anchors to be included in these PS tests. Inventors, too, have sent prototypes. (The notion of a perfect anchor is so intriguing that inventors are, we're positive, out there working right now.)

When PS first looked at this situation back in 1997, there had been dozens of tests run by manufacturers (and testing organizations in their pay), other magazines, independent authors of books on the subject, and even government-allied groups. Among these were the French APAVE, the U.S. Navy…