We used the little Danforth for three years in the Sea of Cortez on Mirador - Caliber 40 25,000# in her bloated cruising attire.

A stern anchor is essential for good sleep and comfortable anchoring along the east coast of the Baja Peninsula north of La Paz. We used a stern anchor for weeks at a time when we stayed in an anchorage such as Evaristo, El Gato, Alacron, San Francisquito, BLA village.

The problem is that the night time offshore winds begin around sunset and build until 3 or 4 AM. The prevailing 2' swell is from the SE to East. If you let your boat swing to the offshore wind - the stern quarter or stern is facing the prevailing swell and the boat rocks/rolls unmercifully - even with the mandatory flopper stopper deployed. And on Mirador - the swell explodes under the transom and sounds like a bomb going off.

We've set in offshore 20 gusting to 32 with the entire load on the 22# stern anchor with no problems. The anchor was buried deep enough in fine white sand that only the top of the shank was visible and I had to dive to dig it out.

The other important use of the stern anchor, at least on Mirador, is to prevent shearing at anchor. The northereasters and northerly winds that blow much of the winter shift 30 to 40 degrees in the gusts and Mirador will shear 50 degrees in even steady winds. We drop the stern anchor (with 15' of 3/8" chain) so that only the anchor and a couple feet of chain are on the bottom. As she tries to shear the drag slows down the sideways movement and makes the boat sit much more comfortably.

We did wrap the stern rode (2" nylon webbing deployed from an Anchorlina winch) around the skeg a couple times in light winds when the boat is just drifting side to side. Since I spent 2 - 4 hours a day diving (snorkling) it was no big deal to unwrap the mess.