Craig,
Thanks for the posting of WM's chart. I, for one, did not find it out of line. It has been my experience that anchors are like pick-up trucks. Every man has to defend his to the death, until he gets a new one and then is free to enumerate the many deficiencies of the last one.(g) With respect towards all, if not their anchors, personal experience counts a great deal, especially about such an important piece of gear. The trouble with testing, outside of lab conditions, is that it is IMPOSSIBLE to get consistant results. Even the type testing done by the magazines is insufficient. Notice the amazement amoung the WM staff at the difference in results from previous testing. A difference they are unable to fully explain.
Just because you are anchoring in the same spot during the test does not mean that each anchor dropped is going to fetch up in the same location or bottom conditions. Bottom conditions vary widely, even over a small area. There are too many variables to account for, most of them unseen, and hence unaccounted. That fellow testing anchors at low tide, with his pick-up truck, probably has as scientific an approach as any. I think all of the anchor tests should be taken with a grain of salt. We ain't exactly testing can-openers here.
A post I do find worthless, is the one by Alain. The only appropriate response to such posts is, "so what?" It would come as no surprise to find such posters informing us, "latest research finds anchors on Titanic ineffective". So what?
As alluded by tjk, personal experience, especially personal experience in conditions such as he described, counts a great deal. Of course, a big part of that is how the anchor was set and to what rode. Fellows, such as tjk, who probably could have been somewhere more comfortable instead of actually testing his anchor, deserve credit and respect. Like most seamanship skills, that are more often observed in the breech, anchoring is one that requires practise and the sense to note what was different each time. Most would probably prefer to keep a clean foredeck than gain that experience.
Lastly, in my experience, it is not a question of dragging. It is only a question of when you finally do drag. If you've never dragged, it's due to either not anchoring enough or luck. An anchor that readily resets should be a major consideration.