It's a nice sunny afternoon, it's blowing about 25 knots, and there are small waves with a mile of fetch over shallow water.
Tystie is perfectly comfortable, veering gently to and fro a little.
... so I thought I'd try the experiment.
I attached a 30 metre warp to the anchor chain, led it outside all to the stern quarter cleat on the starboard side, waited until she veered out to port, and eased out the chain. The bow fell away, taking the weight on the warp, until she was lying very steadily, stern-to, at an angle of about 20 degrees to the wind. The motion became rather worse, somewhat jerky, and the waves were slapping the transom and the topsides aft, throwing spray up into the cockpit. Not pleasant at all. So I took the other end of the warp forward (that's why it was more than twice as long as the boat) and secured it while I eased away the chain some more, until she was again head to wind. That way, I retained full control, which might be a problem in extremis (which 25 knots clearly isn't). I might have used a long bridle, with a leg to each stern quarter cleat, but the waves slapping against the transom at 90 degrees would have been worse.
My preference for anchoring in wild conditions will remain to lay two anchors in a broad 'V'. Two points of attachment to the seabed are always better than one. In extremis, three points of attachment are better than two.
