Bruce Anchor Would Not Set

[Bash]

Originally Posted by SailFastTri

In a dynamic situation when you also need to worry about snatch loads, the calculations on the linked page prove that rope (or chain combined with long elastic snubber) actually holds better than all-chain.

I'll stop using an all-chain rode as soon as the bulk cargo freighters, supertankers, aircraft carriers and container vessels switch to nylon.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by gonesail

ok it was a typo .. i have 35 feet of chain on the bruce 33 with 12000 lb. boat .. and could not let it soak cause the wind was up. i did not back down on it but saw it was skipping along the sand .. had about 60 feet of rode out in 8 feet of water. already passed thru daytona and in melbourne

Assuming 4' freeboard then you're at 12' x 5 = 60' of rode, so you had the perfect length of rode out to set a Bruce anchor.

Something must have been wrong. Check if the anchor is still good: shaft not bent etc. Also, like others wrote, was the anchor fouled? not just a chain around a claw makes it fail; I have had rocks or a piece of coral inside the claw which will prevent setting it.. but the rock is normally still inside when you lift the anchor up again...

Last thing I can think of is a less pleasant one: check if your anchor is an original Bruce. The knock off's are very different in shape and do not set anything like a Bruce.

ciao!
Nick.

[svHannabel]

Lots of talk about increasing the amount of chain, but nobody has mentioned anchor weight. A 33lbs Bruce is a bit on the light side with a 33 footer for my tastes. I have a 33lbs Bruce with 25' of chain as my primary on my 8,000 lbs 28 footer. Of course, I'm also of the mindset that the you've achieved the proper anchor size when people laugh at its' immensity when you're carrying it down the dock for the first time.

[klem]

The initial post had me thinking that the issue was a total lack of scope but the second post by the OP suggests that the scope was sufficient.

There has been some talk of technique but I haven't seen the OP discuss how they tried to set the anchor. It sounds like it was dragging very rapidly which makes it very hard for the anchor to dig in and hold because it tends to skate along the bottom and if it does start to bite, the boat has enough momentum to pull it out again. Ideally, the load should be very slowly ramped up until you are backing down with a lot of force.

With 60' of road out, it is likely hard to see but you can tell if you have enough chain by whether there are any links on the bottom or whether they are all suspended. If even 1 link is firmly lying on the bottom the entire time, no addition of chain will improve setting.

As has been suggested, checking for something fouling the anchor would also make sense in this scenario. Even a ziplock bag or a small rock can keep an anchor from setting.