LOL, you may be referring to Craig Smith I think? He is not well liked by many as you seem to have found, his tactics were less than welcomed by many

They made a huge mistake by not getting the Patent on the design and Manson got ahead of them with a well designed "copy" of the Rocna. Personally I didn't really care which, Rocna or Manson Supreme, I wanted the one that fit right and was the right $$. There are some engineering differences that some would consider important, I'm not that obsessed

Here is a good thread on the topic, oh and BTW it seems now the Rocna is being produced in China, argg:
http://www.sailnet.com/forums/gear-main ... nchor.html http://www.sailnet.com/forums/gear-main ... china.html Our boat also came with a 35# CQR knockoff I didn't really care for, as you said, hard to set if it would set at all. We just replaced it with a Rocna 33#. I had originally bought a Manson Supreme 45# but after trying to fit it to the bow roller I gave up and returned it and got the Rocna.
As far as performance goes, well it holds like your tied to a tree. Only once so far have I had an issue setting on the first attempt, otherwise it has held strong every time, most notable during a 40+ mph wind gusts during a storm which shifted the boat about 180 degrees or so and lasted for about 30 minutes.
Fortunately the prices have come down considerably which makes them more competitive with the Manson and Delta.
My Danforth and CQR rip off are now used as back ups only, and I sleep much better as well.