Rick, for me I'm sure.
More is better. For 25 years I used two anchors off the bow with short chain and rope. My wife and I enjoyed the teamwork this method required and we were showing off too. But while talking with a cruising fleet friend I learned something that has stayed with me. He said that one year he was crewing on a large sailboat. The boat was in Lahaina, Maui. The owner bought new anchor chain and it was delivered to the harbor beach. My friend and a dozen other guys went to the delivery truck to get the chain. They figured they could just get the loose end from the barrel and pull it to the boat instead of having to figure out how to carry the barrel. They found the end and off they went. Just like a tug-of-war. They dragged the chain in the sand. My friend said the party ended after 50'. The chain refused to move. I forget how they put the chain aboard but it wasn't by dragging it. I also recalled a passage in a Pardey book. It said that the anchor chain weight problem can be mitigated by using 1/4" HT chain. Strong and light. During our refit and the installation of new ground tackle systems, I recalled those stories and tried to apply them to our system without abandoning our old tried and true (mostly) two anchor system. (call it Bahamanian moore or what-ever) Anyway, The boat was given dual matching rollers. One was for the Fortress and one for the Bruce. The Bruce would be kept to the chain on the windless for dimensional reasons. The Fortress could be retrieved with the drum on the windlass. I had planed to use a chain/rope rode on the Bruce, but one thing led to another and we ended up with 200 feet of all 1/4" HT chain on the Bruce. That turned out to be the end of the story. The Fortress has yet to enter the water. The poor holding Bruce, (with rope rode) now works wonderfully. Only once this summer did it fail to set on the first try, then it grabbed. And it's so easy. When pulling into an anchorage we don't have to look for room to put out two anchors. We don't upset the neighbors by having to place a hook next to them before we move off to drop the second hook 200, or more, feet away. And we don't move around the anchor. After setting the Bruce, the boat pulls forward again as the chain drops to the bottom in an attempt to form a heap. Then the boat just sits in one spot. Cool, and so easy. But we did NOT have severe conditions or even anything close to bad weather and the tidal flow where we have been playing was minimal BUT it's still so much easier! After all those years we look forward to anchoring now. It's fun, not a chore. My setup is on my web site. See photo's #8,9,60-64 and then 133. Oh, the boat sits level too and floats an inch above the waterline at the BOW too!
