OK, that was a total click bait headline. And you are right, I should be ashamed of myself, particularly since I firmly believe that the quest for best is a fool's errand that leads to poor decisions.
That said, I have noticed lately that looking for and discussing the "best" seems to be more and more the way the cruising world is going. I blame two trends:
- Forums, where much of the discussion seems to be an argument about what boat or piece of gear is "best", which leads to ego polishing around who has the "best" and ego bruising for those who lose the best-battle.
- YouTubers who leverage the quest for best in their relentless battle to break out of the pack of thousands labouring for nothing (except making Google richer) while trying to become one of a handful of YouTube stars cruising the world funded by advertising.
But the bottom line is that there is no best. We all have different aspirations, needs, boats, cruising grounds, finances, and levels of experience, so to suggest that there could be a best of anything for all of us is just plain silly.
OK, enough generalities, let's look at the specific thing that set off the rant above: YouTube video #100 from Steve over at SV Panope in which he sets out to identify the best anchor with numerical analysis.
Now, before I go any further, I need to make clear that nothing in this article is a criticism of Steve and his excellent work, or to suggest that he is in any way biased.
Rather, I think that the work Steve has done over the last few years is some of the most important anchor testing done by anyone, anywhere, ever.
And if we listen carefully to Steve, he constantly warns us of the weaknesses in the quest-for-best, but the problem is that those in the grip of best-lust tend not to hear such warnings.
So let's figure out how each of us can use Steve's excellent data, mixed with my real-world experience, and that of others who comment here, to arrive at a best anchor for each of us.
And to make that task manageable, let's just focus on Steve's top 11 anchors. See the table I built from his video at the top of the article.
Now, given that we are trying to individualize the conclusion here, what follows is how I would select an anchor, not how you should—veering off into the latter would kind of miss the whole point of my rant above, wouldn't it?
Anyway, although this will be all about me—I know, what else is new—I will discuss my reasons for the selection criteria I chose, which will help you develop your own.
And, by the way, this is not just an academic exercise given that Phyllis and I are now in serious boat shopping mode and almost all the candidates we have looked at are equipped with anchors that we want no part of—amazing how many obsolete anchors are still out there.
Weaknesses
So, first off, when I study the above list two methodology weaknesses jump out at me:
