Anchor answers.....
First off I actually own both the Spade A-80 and the Spade S-80. The reason I purchased the steel version of the Spade was because in a hard mud bottom the aluminum version while about 14 lbs above water becomes more like 8-9 lbs. below and had a very tough time penetrating a hard bottom. My first time set rate with the A-80 was somewhere around 75-80% & similar to a CQR where the S-80 has set first try set at about 98%. The steel version I have absolutely no problems with at all. It does set and hold very well and I use the S-80 as my back up anchor and like the fact that I can store it "knocked down" meaning taken apart. As for the Manson it is amazing! The Manson Supreme, from what I understand, is a knock off of the Rocna. It sets imediatly & has sharpened edges, like an arrow head, and slices through weeds and grass with no problem. My first time set rate with this anchor has been 100% with almost 85 sets this year already. I have yet to have this anchor drag even while backing down with my engine in reverse at cruise rpm. Back in April we weatherered a storm with 45-50 knots and the cookie trail, zoomed into 20 feet showed absolutely no movement in the morning. All it does is bury it deeper. The design of the roll bar forces the anchor to land in the perfect set position every time without having to add tip weight which increases the cross section of the anchor where it needs to penetrate a bottom. I like that! I can honestly say I have found "my anchor" after trying every possible brand over the last twenty five years. This design wether it's a Rocna or Manson is incredible. I have yet to find conditions where this anchor does not set within a few feet! I've owned and still own a CQR, Bruce, Fortress, Spade & Delta and none of them except the Bruce & Spade even comes close to the performance of this anchor (I know some old school diehard CQR guys will dispute this so go ahead). I really loved my Bruce anchor but the limited holding power scared me after riding out a few hard blows where I did not sleep I decided to seek yet another anchor. Although I never actually dragged the Bruce (very far) I have more piece of mind while sleeping on the Manson than I did with any of the other anchors...OK onto the C-310. Yes we did switch to power for one year and it absolutely sucked. It's kind of like commuting to work but without the traffic. We traded in our 86 C-36 on the Mainship and regretted it rather quickly..I had always really wanted a C-320 or C-310 even before we bought the C-36 so when it came time to trade in the Mainship my wife decided the C-310 was for us and not the C-320. She really hates sleeping in an aft cabin and the 320 has a very cramped forepeak so the 310 it was. As for saailing performance the 36 still feels like a substantially heavier boat but it lacks in the light air performance. We purchased the boat show special so she was loaded with every conceivable option available on a 310 including a RF main. After having a RF main I will never ever go back period, it's that good. Yes I give up a little performance but the 310, 320, 350, 380/390 etc. were designed for a RF main with longer booms and rigs/hulls designed around a RF concept. I routinely beat a local 320 with full batten and deep keel so I think ability plays a large role also. Of course if the skipper of the 320 was a better sailor he'd probably beat me 9 out of ten times. We're not racers so .02 of a knot means nothing to us but the convience of infinite reefing while never leaving the cockpit does. We also sail more because of the RF. It takes me less than 30 seconds to open the main and 30 seconds to put it away. In light winds while others are motoring with no sails we routinely open and close the sails to catch the short fifteen minutes of wind. If it dies no big deal the sails are put away with no fuss.. We really, really love our 310. Although we may be selling for a couple of years, with an adoption in progress, when we come back we will probably go with another 310. Who knows I might just put her in storage until were ready to sail again but it's a rather big investment to let sit for that amount of time...