[OsmundL]

It is too light to set well in many conditions... it is also not as strong as a steel anchor in many cases, and can fail if the load is applied to the anchor from the wrong direction.

"Too light"
The 20lb alu anchor is lighter than the 20lb steel anchor, then?

Two excellent anchors are the Rocna and Spade (Rocna being rather too expensive), available in both steel and alu, and I doubt that any of them are troubled with stress.

 

[OsmundL]

There is weight and there is density... the Aluminum anchor's effective weight under water is far less than a steel anchors, due to the lighter density and greater volume of aluminum. Also, the greater surface area of a light aluminum anchor, like the Fortress, often means that it will "kite" if the boat gets moving at all, and not reset.

BTW, can you show me where on the Rocna site they offer an Aluminum anchor. AFAIK, they don't and never have.

Sorry, SD, I was imprecise. You're right about Rocna, of course - but there are quite a few reasonable copies about.
More important: I wasn't considering the Fortress as the main anchor - to me it is OK as No.2. And the point about weight wasn't literal - I mean to say that you choose the correct anchor - size, weight - for your boat, material already calculated. A great deal of the weight tends to be added in the chain, and the most common mistake is to leave too short a chain in the water.
People should pay more attention to anchor shapes and less to weight unless you anchor on some fairly specific bottom surfaces.

 

[OsmundL]

Hello Fellow Sailors:
I love my stainless steel anchor. It s beautiful! It also has never hit the water in 3 years as I never anchor out! My family loves marinas.
Big Moe

"Price" seems fairly decisive when choosing anchors. It is, after all, one of the items to label "consumable" on board. People lose anchors, you may have to cut loose and run in some emergencies, and boating neighbors can create all kinds of tangles.

I use a Spade as primary and Fortress as No.2, and it has worked well, not inexpensive, but not pure luxury either. Not to discount "quality," and certainly not ignoring design efficiencies, most of us will draw the line somewhere. It is not difficult to take anchoring to an art form if money is no object - you could add a Swisstech marker buoy with furling lines (it costs as much as the anchor itself), you could have a solar-powered strobe light for the marker buoy, not to mention half a dozen clever substitutes for the plain bosun's hook - but unless you live at anchor for months, is it strictly necessary? To me, functionality beyond the basics tastes too much like a decorated mobile home surrounded by a garden and the obligatory garden gnomes.

Stainless steel? Not bad. Next question: how much?