Anchor set up: style over function?

I do not care for this. I also do not like the idea of the sides of the boat sliding out at the touch of a switch.

Guess I am "old school".

+1.

This is called a submarine anchor. If the mecanism to get the anchor correctly in its pocket is designed perfectly, it works pretty good. It is used widely on larger performance sailboats. We have one of those systems on our cruiser racer sloop. The only problem we have is, the boat has to be floating on her position until the anchor is fully stored in it's pocket, otherwise the anchor goes into the stream on it's swivel and may not store properly.

I first noticed a submarine anchoring system on a Kiwi built motor Sailer 20 yrs. or so ago while it was on the hard @ Derecktor's in Lauderdale.
On larger vessels the anchor decks the set up would resemble the normal VT style windlass installations and spurling pipe set up with the only difference being a vertical cofferdam extending up and above the waterline accommodating the anchor well in the forefoot with hydraulic doors. Smaller vessels like the Palmer Johnson Khalila without an anchor deck I would think the system would be blind operated or close circuit camera monitored. I figure the internet is full of submarine anchor system drawings and articles.

Well many sailboats have submarine or below the waterline anchor systems. Vitters did it with a few of their builds...think "Aquijo" was one the 'their' last. They also did the V-anchor arm which allows the anchor to be stored below deck when not in use.