As most of you know, I'm not a fan of stainless steel anchors, primarily because an anchor made of the right grade of galvanized steel is much stronger, size for size.
That said, there's no intrinsic reason that an anchor that's strong enough for purpose can't be made from stainless as long as the designer and manufacturer take into account the properties of that alloy, rather than just build an anchor in stainless that was originally designed for a stronger material, as several manufacturers have done.
And stainless has the advantages that it sheds mud and debris more quickly when being hauled and, of course, it does not bleed rust all over the deck like a galvanized anchor will when it gets banged up, as it inevitably will on any boat that actually cruises.
Given all that, while at the boat show I spent some time at the Ultra anchor booth, most of it looking at the cut-away model above.
Two things that I really liked about the Ultra: Some Thoughts On The Ultra Anchor, Roll Bars and Swivels
As most of you know, I'm not a fan of stainless steel anchors, primarily because an anchor made of the right grade of galvanized steel is much stronger, size for size.
That said, there's no intrinsic reason that an anchor that's strong enough for purpose can't be made from stainless as long as the designer and manufacturer take into account the properties of that alloy, rather than just build an anchor in stainless that was originally designed for a stronger material, as several manufacturers have done.
And stainless has the advantages that it sheds mud and debris more quickly when being hauled and, of course, it does not bleed rust all over the deck like a galvanized anchor will when it gets banged up, as it inevitably will on any boat that actually cruises.
Given all that, while at the boat show I spent some time at the Ultra anchor booth, most of it looking at the cut-away model above.
Two things that I really liked about the Ultra: 