CQR anchor---- is it good for the Bahamas?

[jcapo]

Anchor rollers on some boats do not easily mount a huge roll bar anchor.

From North Carolina to the Jumentos my 45# CQR has dragged twice. Once in at Green Turtle grass and grass is a problem for CQRs and others. And once in the nuke plant canal in Southport, NC where the bottom is described as chocolate pudding. There is a name for that type of bottom but I forget.

I spent the winter anchored in Titusville, FL south of the bridge. I was quite comfortable hanging on my CQR as many fronts passed with days of south wind across 5 miles of open fetch. I had protection from the north after front passage.

During the south to north migration this past spring I saw several roll bar anchor boats drag hundreds of feet across the Titusville anchorage multiple times trying to set their anchor. They gave up and went to the city mooring field. I pulled anchor and anchored again every two weeks for a pumpout and I never had a problem setting my CQR in the same place the roll bars dragged.

I also saw boats with CQRs and Deltas fail to anchor in the same area and one boat with a delta drag toward the rocks in a blow till it found a sandbar.

I think its all about anchoring techinque.

I also weathered bad fronts on the west side of Highborne Cay and the west side of Flamingo Cay without my CQR dragging. Its completely open fetch from the northwest on the west side of those two cays and it was not fun.

If you can mount a roll bar anchor in your anchor roller and you have $600 for the anchor then do it. You won't be sorry. Or be happy that you know your CQR has worked for you in the past and go sailing. It will work in the Bahamas.

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by jcapo

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I think its all about anchoring techinque.

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Well, I'm very close to agreeing with this. I think a competent person can make a CQR stick in most subtrates an I believe there are people with the ability to screw up the set of a Manson, Mantus or Rocna.

There's no doubt some anchors and some boaters do better than others!

[markpierce]

Is this a sign that "old" is good enough or that they haven't anchored for the last couple of decades?

[CSY Man]

Sure, a competent person can cruise with a CQR but will he be sleeping good when the 0200 squall kicks in blowing 45 knots and half the boats are dragging and frantically starting engines and re-setting anchors.?. (Dark and stormy night, thunder and lightning)
Under those conditions I just roll over in bed and go back to sleep because I spent a few hundred bucks on a good anchor.
Not sure why this is even being debated or why there is a disagreement about a good anchor versus a mediocre anchor??
Some folks swore by the horse and buggy when automobiles first appeared.
Others sneezed at the first aero planes: Them things will never work, idiots trying to invent something new :-((

If dinosaurs want to cruise with old anchors, by all means, go for it. Heck, cavemen use a rock tied to a twine for anchors and it worked most of the time. Did they sleep good? Yes as long as the Gods were not angry starting thunderstorms to punish sailors.
After a few thousand years they came up with better anchors but surely the old timers were skeptical even back then and rolled their eyes when the new rocks had hooks on them.
Another 500 years and some genius came up with metal chain but the Dino's said that will never work, my God what is happening here? The coconut fibers worked great for a thousand years, and this new thing is a waste of time and money.








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[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by CSY Man

If dinosaurs want to cruise with old anchors, by all means, go for it. Heck, cavemen use a rock tied to a twine for anchors and it worked most of the time. Did they sleep good? Yes as long as the Gods were not angry...

Rock on a rope.

[model 10]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

Rock on a rope.

How about re-bar on a rope? Fishermen don't have the dough to buy a Rocna.

[CSY Man]

Fishermen don't anchor, they bring the catch home to sell or eat. Unlike cruisers, we sit at anchor for weeks or months, fat, dumb and happy.
Some of us do it in the hurricane season with no insurance.
Anchor better be good


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[roetter]

Sitting at Hawksbill Cay, Bahamas right now in 30+ knots in the squalls hooked to a Rocna. I will be sleeping well tonight just as the last few nights near Staniel behind Big Major Spot and behind Leaf Cay the day before. All in windy weather. With squalls and thunderstorms possible here you really want an anchor you can trust under any conditions. The Rocna will shuffle around on wind direction changes without breaking out.

The day after I dragged a CQR through small a bay 7 times without it ever setting before hitting the shore, (had to look for a bay with more room) I switched to a Manson and later on this boat to a Rocna (which ever is easier to get). Those anchors set for me every time within a couple of feet. Don't reverse to fast or you may loose your balance on the abrupt stop by the anchor.


Rolf

[RTB]

Originally Posted by roetter

Sitting at Hawksbill Cay, Bahamas right now in 30+ knots in the squalls hooked to a Rocna. I will be sleeping well tonight just as the last few nights near Staniel behind Big Major Spot and behind Leaf Cay the day before. All in windy weather. With squalls and thunderstorms possible here you really want an anchor you can trust under any conditions. The Rocna will shuffle around on wind direction changes without breaking out.


Rolf

It does look a bit on the breezy side there tonight. Got to admit, the ground tackle gets a good workout down there. Hang in there, and have a Kalik for me.

Ralph

[CSY Man]

Sitting at Hawksbill Cay, Bahamas

Hawksbill Cay, my favorite island....enjoy, and say hello from me

[Sea7King]

Lots of "beach rock" (google the term for description), as CSY said, in the Bahamas and often hidden or un-noticed until the wind pipes up. And usually when you least expect a bad anchoring experience. I discovered that CQR's drag badly in this situation in the Bahamas. I bought a new Mantus last spring and it works!

Since you already have the rode, seems like a small enough investment for peace of mind.

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by CSY Man

Sure, a competent person can cruise with a CQR but will he be sleeping good when the 0200 squall kicks in blowing 45 knots and half the boats are dragging and frantically starting engines and re-setting anchors.?. (Dark and stormy night, thunder and lightning)
Under those conditions I just roll over in bed and go back to sleep because I spent a few hundred bucks on a good anchor.

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Even if you have 100% confidence in your own anchor, don't you worry about someone else dragging into you?

One of the reasons I like our shallow draught is we can usually get anchored in close, with no-one anchored upwind. I rarely sleep well if it's windy and there are other boats upwind of us.

What I'm finding interesting here is how many people are saying how they replaced a CQR with a much bigger 2nd or 3rd gen anchor, and are getting better results. Apples vs oranges isn't it? (I've done the same thing - it's just human nature, if a 40lb anchor has dragged, you're pretty unlikely to want to replace it with another 40lb anchor.)

But the fact you've replaced one anchor with a different but substantially bigger one and had better results doesn't really reflect on the designs does it?

Just wondering how many people have actually gone DOWN a size or two when replacing their "old" anchor with a new one, and still had better results?

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

What I'm finding interesting here is how many people are saying how they replaced a CQR with a much bigger 2nd or 3rd gen anchor, and are getting better results. Apples vs oranges isn't it? (I've done the same thing - it's just human nature, if a 40lb anchor has dragged, you're pretty unlikely to want to replace it with another 40lb anchor.)

But the fact you've replaced one anchor with a different but substantially bigger one and had better results doesn't really reflect on the designs does it?

Just wondering how many people have actually gone DOWN a size or two when replacing their "old" anchor with a new one, and still had better results?

In the thread I linked to in an earlier post on this subject, there is input directly from Rocna about how this occurs many times and is, basically, not necessary if you properly utilize their sizing tables, as well as research published in reasonably respected books, like Calder's Cruising Handbook, to which I provide regular links (search here under my name for "Anchoring System").

Also, that earlier link showed a pretty straightforward picture of a group of anchors of, IIRC, the same size, showing the substantially larger flukes on the New Gen anchors, including a CQR. If ONLY for the much larger flukes on the newer anchors, one could make the point that they should be better.

It is possible to go down in size with the larger flukes, but I doubt if anyone has done that, since it is quite possible that the thought process is that cruising away from your "home base" might entail heavier conditions than you might have been anchoring in locally, hence, the choice for a larger ground tackle that the same rode could handle. It's all a SYSTEM.

[Jim Cate]

FWIW:

We went from a 44 lbBruce which dragged occasionally to a 66 lb Bruce which never dragged when well set, but sometimes was hard to get stuck in, to a 60 lb (slightly lighter) Supreme. We live at anchor, so we're talking about on the order of 3000 nights experience with this boat and these three anchors. So, to some extent at least one experienced cruiser went smaller... but not much!

The Manson has dragged twice: once in Port Davey, Ila cove, soupy mud in areas, 60+ knots in gusts, 50 sustained for several hours. The other time was on the Clarence River in NSW whilst it was busy flooding. Again, fairly soft river silt, not much wind but 6 knots of flood current and a huge mass of hyacinth and other debris built up on the chain and bow. Both incidents were slow creeping backwards, not breaking loose.

If I had it to do again, I would consider a slightly larger modern anchor, perhaps 75 lbs or so. Possibly a Mantus, for Nolex's pix have been convincing!

But we're sitting through a vigorous thunderstorm in Moreton Bay right now, and I ain't worried about dragging... lightning strikes are a different matter!

Cheers,

Jim

[CSY Man]

Sure, I have gone down in size: Replaced a 55 lbs Delta with a 44 Rocna, better holding, faster setting and easier handling.


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