How much pull is there on your anchor chain?

THERE is a mountain of anchoring trials data that measure the force required to drag an anchor, but there is a lack of real-world measured data for the loads exerted by a yacht on the anchor rode.

Do we ever get anywhere close to the loads causing a well-set anchor to drag? If so, at what windspeed do we reach that load? The answers are important, not only if we want to ensure the anchor does not drag, but also to determine whether an all chain rode is ‘better’ than a mixed rope/chain rode. The mathematics and physics of a mixed rode are complicated, but a typical result is shown in figure 1.

While these results are academically interesting, in order to be of practical value we have to know whether typical anchoring conditions lie towards the left