Interesting thoughts from all.
A cautionary note from a good ol' buddy's experience, and one I took great heed of personally.
He always used a buoy/anchor (Alderney) system, which I presume he, for similar reasons to the above, used a stern bollard to tow the anchor and chain into the ring for winch or hand recovery. On one occasion, he had fished the first part of the ebb, back into a part of St Alban's Ledge, until the tide picked up. (33' wooden fisher 5+ tons)
Upping anchor started OK, having freed it from the bed, warp on stern bollard. Suddenly he had loss of power.
(you can see where this goes).
Drifting down tide he + one crew try to sort out the engine as they drift to the ledge when the anchor (which was only half in) drops on the ledge, immediately sticking in. This swings the boat from broadside on, to stern up-tide in seconds, right in the rip / over-fall zone.
Stern under and shipping water, the axe went through the warp ASAP but only just in time.