I was impressed with the small galvanised SPADE, in particular the “spade” shape which is designed to penetrate and lock into the soil, compared with the “plow” shape of the *** and ***** anchors which are designed to move through the ground. I have nothing but praise for this 20 kg Spade anchor. It has almost invariably penetrated immediately (I motor back very slowly at first to give the point to go down into increasingly harder seabed) and with one exception over the past 3 years it has held our full reverse power of 140 hp through a 600 mm 3 bladed Gori prop. The single exception was in a marina in New Caledonia where I knew the bottom was of very soft mud, but there was still ample holding for engine revs equivalent to around 40 knots of wind.

Obviously one can hold almost any craft in almost any conditions. In our case we have been able to go from a 40 kg ***** to a 20 kg Spade, with a substantially better performance, and a weight saving of 20 kg.