On Aliza (54' 33 ton Bruce Roberts steel Ketch) I have decided to use both anchors on a single chain for safety and simplicity. I have 4 anchors on Aliza and 95% of the time my main anchor (A custom 55 KG design SS Bruce/Plow combination) will give me both safety and ease of use. When I have a challenging situation I bring my secondary anchor (A SS custom 50 KG Danforth) that seats on the bow rail and can be connected directly to my main anchor. This gives me a fast deploy/retrieve system with super holding.

In all of our 21 years of sailing Aliza (First circumnavigation WWW.Aliza.Talkspot.com and the last NYC to Med Facebook page "Sailing Yacht Aliza") I did not have to deploy another anchor for safety! ( I did deploy a stern anchor which is kept on the stern rail for a convenience reason in order to get Aliza's bow to point into the waves for better anchoring experience when we anchored in Santa Barbara CA in 2002 and wind, wave, current were a bit challenging.)

The custom rail mount (both bow and stern) are self made and have a slot that the Danforth drops right in and secured by it's own weight and a short rope.