Rocna Anchor, Bent Shank

I was practically kissing my Rocna every morning until I discovered the horrible news!!!

A bent shank!!! Photograph kindly stolen from a very good blog at Sailinggromit.

It appears that Rocna's production moved to China where all the high quality steel is reserved for making more important objects. What the hell could be more important than an anchor? Some people will do anything to make a few more pennies, it's disgusting I tell you. 

 

Practical Sailor magazine put the anchor to the test by bolting a 10-kg Rocna to a concrete floor and applying side force to the shank. It bent 15º at 230 kg of load. From this finding they mathematically deducted that it would take a 500-kg load to bend the shank of a 25 kg Rocna. But they didn't mention whether the Rocna they tested was made in China or Canada.

After stumbling onto this dirty little secret, I wasted hours sweating it out in boating forums, such as Cruisers Forum,  reading about "the horrors of buying a "Chinese" Rocna. Forum junkies go really nuts when discussing anchors and anchoring; the topic seems to transform placid sailors into vicious dung-throwing warriors. Have a look for yourself.  

Then I checked out a reputable site Attainable Adventure Cruising where very experienced sailors repeatedly state that Rocna is God's gift to boaters, regardless of the fact that an unspecified number were fabricated with inferior quality steel some years ago.

"Some years ago" has a sweet sound to it; I bought my anchor 2 weeks ago. Time to step out of the house and into the real world where life - as opposed to Internet life - is much more satisfying. 

 I went for a walk along the beach promenade and came across this amusing graffiti. 

So I looked back.