Ideal Anchor for Med or Scandi Mooring

[Dockhead]

Spent the night last night on a beautiful island in the Eastern Gulf of Finland. I had intended to anchor out, but there was a pier with some space on it, and friendly people gestured for me to come in (typical Baltic experience), so in I went, bows-to as is customary here.

Scandi boats have anchors and even electric windlasses on their pushpits or transoms for this kind of mooring; I just have my Fortress kedge, deployed by hand. So throw it overboard a couple of boat lengths from the quay, and pray it sets. Get the rode led fair to a cockpit winch, and inch up to the quay. Friendly people come out of their boats to take your bow lines. And soon it's cocktail time.

The Fortress is absolutely perfect for this, since it is light enough to manhandle around even in a large size, and it sets instantly, even on a short scope. Is the only anchor I've ever used which has never, ever , even once failed to set, so it's the go-to anchor for this kind of duty. A failed set would suck when going into a Scandi or Med moor, and you don't have time or space to work the anchor in.

Now next thing I need is to figure out a bracket for it so it can live on the pushpit, and a reel of tape rode rigged up like the Scandi boats have.

[ullar]

Hi, and welcome to our waters!

Many boats a really quite well prepared to moor bow to the rock or a pier around here. Last year I saw a guy in Stockholm archipelago mooring to the rock with his Hallberg Rassy. He had a wireless remote for his electric kedge windlass. Basically he let his kedge go while approching suitable rock, left boats engine to tickle over on forward and went to the bow to step on the rock with a long line in his hand. Yes, he did all that alone and in completely controlled manner. He fixed the bowline to the tree and took his time to check boat lied allright. Then after a couple of minutes he decided that that wasn't a place for him so he removed the line from the tree and went on to land on a neighbouring rock.

I'm glad your Fortress has worked so well. Some nice natural harbors can have very sippery rocky bottoms. Have had some trouble with my similar Danforth kedge around here.

Cheers
Üllar