Need a good Weed Anchor, Spade A140 not working

[AnchorageGuy]

Craig, Why keep bringing up the fact that the posters have not used every anchor there is? None of us have but we all have opinions and observations about those we have used but don't offer them for sale.

[GordMay]

Dave’s photo illustrates the reasons behind never anchoring with the rode led over an appendage (“cantilevered roller assemblies”, or bowsprit, etc) - always through hull/deck mounted fairlead chocks mounted as near to the cleat (Sampson post, etc) as possible.
The roller is only intended for convenient anchor handling.

[Jon E]

There was a comparative test of 14 different anchors written up in Sail Mag.October issue 2006. The "team" included people from Power and Motoryacht, Yachting Monthly, Sail Mag. and folks from West Marine. They tested in 3 locations but unfortunately, none were predomonately grass bottom. The article is comprehensive and would be very usefull to anyone in the market for a new anchor. It does illustrate that spending more money doesn't automatically buy more holding power! I appreciate the comments on these pages since I am often faced with anchoring in grass--something we have a lot of in the San Juan Islands it seems. Jon

[Alain d'HYLAS]

See the complete article on:

Attainable Adventure Cruising

Up until we bought our 120lb (55kg) SPADE anchor in 2002, our 150lb Luke Fisherman anchor, that we affectionately call “Big Bertha”, was our anchor of choice in kelp and rocky bottoms like those found in Labrador and Greenland.

However, since the change to the SPADE, we have not had to set the Luke once, despite having made a voyage to Svalbard, a trans-Atlantic via Iceland and Greenland, and a circumnavigation of Newfoundland while anchoring about a hundred and fifty times.

So I think our new recommendation would be: If heading for Labrador or Greenland a large Luke is probably a worthwhile investment as a backup to either a SPADE or a Rocna primary. But if the high latitudes are not on the agenda, we would make the spare a second Rocna or SPADE since they will have much better holding in mud or sand, than the Luke, due to their much larger fluke area for a given weight.

On “Morgan’s Cloud” we have kept our Luke, but moved it below.

http://www.morganscloud.com/aacblog/

[Shas]

Ram

Fair enough.
I was puzzled by the apparent incongruity
between the description and the depiction :=)
IE, the text spoke of the anchor dragging,
130 feet of chain in 15 feet of water, etc.
and of course that's not what we see in the video.
I didn't realise the video was a "re-enactment" kinda thing.

Craig

I watched the video at the Rocna site
and was disappointed that the Spade wasn't shown.
The charts at the site seem to indicate that
that Spade sets about equally as well as the Rocna
(though with less holding strength).
Is this correct?

I admit that the Rocna video is impressive.
I just wish a few seconds of EACH anchor tested
would have been included. The CQR and Bruce
certainly gave poor performances. Showing the
Spade, Fortress, Delta, etc would be a real public service.
Failure to show them makes me feel like
"maybe they did a GREAT job!",
ya know what I mean?

Yes, I'm a cynic.
I'm trying to improve in that area generally,
but I think it's a valuable perspective
when we are discussing safety at anchor.

Good sailing,

Shas

[Shas]

Alain,
Excellent web site!
I'm eager to spend some more time there.

Thanks for the link to this anchor test
Boat Anchor Review - Power & Motoryacht - Anchors Aweigh

Very informative, and makes me want to do something special for my Spade :=)

Shas

[craigsmith]

Originally Posted by Shas

I just wish a few seconds of EACH anchor tested
would have been included. The CQR and Bruce
certainly gave poor performances. Showing the
Spade, Fortress, Delta, etc would be a real public service.
Failure to show them makes me feel like
"maybe they did a GREAT job!",
ya know what I mean?

Shas, we have some footage that would be rather embarassing for Alain, more so than Acoustic's, but our video is intended to highlight the flaws of the older anchors rather than simply attack the competition. We could include Delta, but like the Spade it is really an "okay" anchor, and we're more interested in getting across the message that the plough and claw are far worse. There are also time constraints - that video's already 10 mins, and a good involved testing "documentary" would probably run to an hour. And many would simply reject it as invalid and biased anyway.

Having said that, we might reshoot the video at some point, at which time I think I would solicit input from the various forums.

Originally Posted by Shas

Thanks for the link to this anchor test

The Power & Motoryacht test is the third version of the West Marine testing from last year. I have to mention this because their "version" is quite shocking, and even directly contradicts in some cases the more in-depth write-ups by SAIL and Yachting Monthly. You will find those here:

• SAIL - October 2006
• Yachting Monthly - December 2006

Lastly, this is a table in which I have put the comments direct from West Marine themselves, as published in their 2007 catalog:



To be clear, all four of these published write-ups - SAIL, YM, P&MY, and WM, are all of the same set of testing.

[dkall]

Seems to me we want a "universal" wrench in anchors. Can we really get along with a crescent wrench on the boat as our only one? Anchors are the same. We need an anchor for heavy weed, hard bottom, mud bottom, sand bottom, rock bottom and any combination of such. Anchors work best in certain bottoms and maybe even with some luck. There is a relationship between anchor weight, fluke size and rode combinations that never seems to be addressed. And everyone keeps talking about this anchor and that anchor, thus we never seem to advance the discussion beyound someones "favorite". Now money might be the issue but I think more than anything if is fear; fear of the results maybe not putting a manufactures anchor in the best light. As a sailor I'm quite skeptical of what Craig and Alain have to say because they have something to gain; money or notariety.

I saw Morgans web site a while ago and thought; hum, maybe there is something there.

But in the end, it comes down to specific anchor / chain / rode setups for specific bottoms. I'm not using my crescent wrench to torque my engine head bolts.

[craigsmith]

Originally Posted by dkall

Seems to me we want a "universal" wrench in anchors. Can we really get along with a crescent wrench on the boat as our only one? Anchors are the same. We need an anchor for heavy weed, hard bottom, mud bottom, sand bottom, rock bottom and any combination of such.

I have to say again I disagree - this is simply not the case anymore. Modern anchors will cover all scenarios on their own, with the possible exception of rock, where only something like a grapnel is really advisable.

Of course we could build a Rocna which would be totally optimized for soft mud, and would hold slightly better than the standard anchor, and the same for other seabeds, at the expense of everything else - Spade and other manufacturers could too. But the reality is, it simply isn't necessary. The design has so much redundant capability that it is truly is a "general purpose" pick, able to set in very hard stuff, penetrate weed/grass, and hold very well in soft stuff.

If you study the feedback, limited as it is, you will see that it bears this out. Beyond that, unless you try for yourself, you have only the word of others including myself, which of course is biased as you rightly point out, and which you can chose to discredit as is your option.

Your point about other factors however is quite valid, although they do occasionally (rarely) get addressed. It just isn't controversial enough to attract attention . And "favorites" certainly do color things.