Photos of Anchors Setting

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by kas_1611

You pay hundreds of thousands for a Swan and fit it with a CQR, that's like putting remoulds on a Ferrari.

Try more like several million pounds. Here's a picture of the same Swan 30 meter yacht that went onto the rocks. It's well constructed, since it made it through the ordeal without any visible damage other than a smudge that should rub out easily.

[hoppy]

New anchorage for today. In 3.5m water and have 25m of chain out.

Initially it was blowing 15 knots at the time I dropped and i gave it some revers revs before going for a swim. The anchor had not gone so deep, so when I goit aboard I reversed up at 2000rpm for 20 seconds. Then decided to be lazy and just grabbed my GoPro Hero 4 Silver

It did dig in a little deeper.



Set in it's own length


It looks like if it's given enough force it will be on it's way to China


One thing I have noticed is that every time I leave an anchorage or town quay, the windlass always makes a groan and struggles that last little bit to free Roccy. It's a new windlass, but same power as the old, so I'm hoping Roccy just does not want to let go whilst my Delta just gave in easily

[kas_1611]

Hoppy,

Looks like a good set for the Vulcan, if slightly drunk, but that should straighten out if there's any extra force on it. Perhaps it's trying to head back to NZ rather than China?

I've also noticed our windlass whinges a little more but that could be down to the extra 17kg it now has to bring up (33kg compared to 16kg previous). I have become a little more subtle with the pull as it approaches break out time to give the boat motion a chance to help break the hold. Takes a little longer but if it saves a windlass rebuild/replacement that's fine with me.

Hope to have some more of our Vulcan heading south early in August.

Cheers

Keiron

[noelex 77]

Sorry, I am a long way behind with presenting these photos. The water is now very warm and a typical snorkel is several hours. Great fun and lots of anchor photos. Some interesting images coming up.

This was a new anchorage. Nice soft sand here and the Mantus has buried well with not much more than the roll bar visible.

It has sliced beautifully through the substrate with no heaping up.

[noelex 77]

This anchorage is a big bay and with the warm water temperatures my Mermaid and I can snorkel far and wide to bring you the photos.
Consequently, while these are at the same anchorage, we have managed to photograph anchors in weed, rock, "ordinary" sand and lovely soft powdery sand, which is quite rare in the Med.

This was a plow anchor dropped in medium weed. You can see why an underwater float is a good idea. The anchor can be hard to find in weed:




This anchor had dragged quite a long way. The drag mark was hard to photograph, but did show up in this brief sand patch between the weed:




In thick weed the anchor itself will always disappear even if very poorly set so the best way to find how it is doing is to reach in and feel. This way you can tell how much of the fluke is buried.

I want to keep these posts as objective as possible so you can judge for yourself. Fortunately the weed was just thin enough on this occasion so that I could get some photos by parting the weed with my hands.

You can hopefully see although there was almost nothing of the anchor visible it was not doing a very good job. Totally on its side with no penetration of even the tip into the substrate below the weed. I did not see the drop, but the long drag mark indicates quite a bit of force was put on the anchor. Frankly I don't think the anchor was ever going to do anything other than lie in the weed.

Nevertheless, weed like this does provide some grip and the anchor would likely still hold in mild/moderate wind on the grip from the weed alone.

[hoppy]

Same anchorage the next day. Took my real dive camera this time. Does not look much better than the GoPro

With a bit of wind it dug in and straightened up a little. Also gained a friend.





A challenge to the photo contributors here. A selfie with your anchor

[noelex 77]

This is a Delta. 6m @ 4:1.
Only the toe was buried, but the short drag mark confirmed it had been set with very little force, so this example tells us little about how the anchor is really performing.

[noelex 77]

This was a Rocna.

It belonged to a very interesting couple. They had been one and half times around the world on their home built yacht that they constructed 30 years ago. They swapped from a CQR to a Rocna and were full of praise for the Rocna.

They invited us on board for a drink and we had a lovely time swapping anchor stories.

You can see the Rocna is nice and secure with most of its fluke buried. The wind direction is a little different from the setting direction. The Rocna has "shuffled" about 30°. It has a bit of a list, probably from the change of direction. There is more heaping up than what would be ideal in what looks like great sand, but it is still a good set.

[Kenomac]

I tried to inject a little art into the selfie adventure. Notice I'm topless in the spirit of the mermaid and smiling for the camera. As expected, the Ultra anchor logo is buried.

On the way back to the boat I discovered someone's lost 15 pound folding fishermans anchor which looks as though the boat and chain departed when the connecting shackle broke.

I recovered it... not quite sure what I'm going to do with it.

Ken

[Tayana42]

Ken, sorry but I prefer the mermaid.


S/V B'Shert

[noelex 77]

A Bugel.

This one is a "genuine" Wasi stainless model.

It has set very well: level with the fluke well buried and minimal heaping up. Bugels set in a shorter distance than convex anchors, but generally not quite as rapidly as concave roll bar anchors.

My only criticism here is of the holes the owner has drilled in his anchor shank.

The boat relocated a few hundred metres away shortly after we took the photo. I don't know if they were concerned that they were close to another boat or if they wanted to check we were not doing something sinister when diving down to their anchor.

Anyone want to buy a Wasi powerball swivel? .

[kas_1611]

Why would you drill holes in the shank yourself unless you know more about the anchor than the manufacturer? If it was better to have holes in the shank the manufacturer would have put them there. Mystifying what goes through some people's minds. Wonder if he's drilled holes in the chassis of his car too?

[noelex 77]

This was the same anchorage, but a completely different substrate.

I have posted lots of photos, because I think it is helpful to picture what is happening on the bottom. This sort of "small boulder and rock" substrate is not uncommon.

This is a Delta, although any design of anchor will not work normally here. If you have a choice, an anchor with long thin flukes (preferably more than one) has more chance of catching. In this case, as is common, the chain jammed between the rocks is providing much of the grip.

The holding can on some occasions be very good if the anchor gets wedged under a rock. I hope the photographs illustrate the possibilities. However, with a slight change in direction of pull the grip can disappear.

There are a couple of interesting things:

• The tip and leading edge of the flukes were very banged up on this anchor. There is a lot of talk about bent shanks, but bent fluke tips are more common in my experience. The Delta has a very blunt and almost indestructible tip together with thick leading edges. The tip and leading edge of the fluke have not bent in this case, just been chewed up, nevertheless, this is not good for anchor performance. Many anchors would fare much worse subjected to whatever this Delta must have been through.
  
• This boat has rigged a line back to the boat to pull the anchor out backwards if it gets snagged. The risk of getting stuck in this sort of substrate is high, so perhaps this is wise precaution if you don't have a Mermaid . However, there is a high risk of wrapping the chain (rather than jamming the anchor) in a loop around a rock. The rope does not help much in this situation. Also consider if the rope itself can get caught. Some of these rocks are bit like jam cleats.

I think the photographs will do more than my prose to give you an idea what tactics to employ if you are forced to anchor in this sort of substrate.
















This close up shows the "chewed up" tip and leading edges:

[hoppy]

I was not going to take a photo of my anchor today, but something I saw during a swim made me rush back and get the dive camera and mount the 10-18 lens on it. I'm much closer to the Rocna than it looks



This rocks much more than photographing dumb anchors


Rod Heikell totally misses this in his books. Who cares about a deserted monastery in the next bay

[Kenomac]

Hoppy,

Did you end up trying to set your anchor following the photo shoot? Looks like it's just sitting atop a large flat rock, as ours must have been last season, just before we dragged anchor and ended up on the beach. That sort of bottom can fool you, you power back thinking everything is fine....

See thread "Anchors are a drag, Waking up on the Beach."

Ken