Photos of Anchors Setting

[NornaBiron]

Originally Posted by NornaBiron

Here are a few anchor sets around us, the delta that had no scope and no hope was in front of us so i had to swim over and ask if he was staying the night, the Italian voice replied we leave in an hour !! a good job the 2nd photo is his skid mark where he dragged, the cqr was just dumped and im glad to say only stopped for lunch, we had one rocna that set well and another that did not, and our 45kg spade was set using max power astern and has the red float

just reading the previous post, can anyone see the yellow paint on our spade ???

[monte]

Good job !

[DoubleWhisky]

Originally Posted by NornaBiron

We had one rocna that set well and another the did not.

The second Rocna looks like just starting to set. Probably no force at all was applied to this anchor

Cheers,

Tomasz

[Kenomac]

No more anchor pictures from me this season. Dove on the anchor an hour ago, then discovered the Gopro camera housing to be filled up with seawater. I'm bummed. A small piece of the housing latch must have broken off when I closed it.

[mbianka]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

No more anchor pictures from me this season. Dove on the anchor an hour ago, then discovered the Gopro camera housing to be filled up with seawater. I'm bummed. A small piece of the housing latch must have broken off when I closed it.

Bummer! You might want to look at a Swann Freestyle camera as replacement. About $100 dollars cheaper than a GoPro and comes with a lot more standard accessories including LCD screen. I have both and they both work well. The Swann also fits into the GoPro mounting clips too.

[noelex 77]

So sorry to hear about your camera, Ken.

I feel guilty that you have lost your camera taking photos for this thread.

Perhaps the Ultra people are listening?

The camera was destroyed trying to take photos of an Ultra anchor working in the real world. A new camera sent to Ken might be worth it for some goodwill and more photos of the Ultra doing its stuff. It is shame to loose Ken's future input on this thread.

We all keen to see how the Ultra performs.

[noelex 77]

This is another very typical performance from a Delta.

It was dropped by a private cruising boat. This was the result of their second drop. A couple of hours after their first attempt they pulled up anchor and moved. They had snorkelled over their anchor and I suspect they were in a rocky area originally. It was great to see they re-anchored. Too often people dive to look at at their anchor, but then do nothing.

The second time around they picked an area of nice soft sand. The Delta has done its typical set with a heap up of sand rather than a dive down of the fluke.

It has taken about 3m to reach this point, a little bit quicker than this anchor normally takes. The drag mark also shows a nice steady progressive increase in depth without any skips or jumps. No doubt the soft sand and long scope are an advantage here. This anchor was actually given quite a bit of force in reverse and was set at at long scope of 7:1 in 5m of water so it had every chance to do well.

[noelex 77]

This was the next morning.
You can see the wind has changed about 90 degrees. Despite the boat and chain moving, the anchor has barely changed.

The wind is 12-15 knots. This amount of wind provides the equivalent force of a reasonable amount of current.

I point this out because people imagine their anchor shifting and rotating every time the wind or current changes. In reality, even a reasonably poorly set anchor like this will tend to stay put much more that most people think.

[NornaBiron]

Originally Posted by SimonV

There is quite a bit of talk in relation to setting the anchor using plenty of reverse. Maybe you don't need reverse and the boats pull should be enough. I am an advocate for backing down on the pick, but what happens during a tide change (180) l don't start the motor and reset the anchor. Do you? ???

Sent from my GT-N7105T using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

We find that using full power to set our anchor gives us peace of mind. Knowing that if we cannot drag it, hopefully the wind force will not be able to drag it either. New generation anchors should reset in a tidal area or wind shift without breaking out of the seabed.

[noelex 77]

Believe it or not, this is the same anchorage.

This is precisely why you should avoid anchoring on rock.

This cat was held by the chain wrapping around a rock. The Ultra was doing little to hold the boat.

As you can see, the chain could quite easily slip off. In these sorts of conditions the anchor can sometimes hold even in very strong winds with just the anchor tip or chain wedged between the boulders. A slight wind shift and the anchor can release.

This sort of holding ground is very unpredictable and never secure. It is best just to avoid it. With the clear water here it is usually easy to see, but these rocks are similar to sand in colour and do fool people. Polaroids are a big help.

Oh, and set an anchor alarm. This boat could quite easily drag in as little as 15 knots of breeze. Even more confusingly, it could hold in 40 knots then let go in 15 knots with a slight wind shift.

[kas_1611]

How deep is the water? Find it hard to believe they didn't know they were dropping on rock as the water looks clear enough.

Goes to show why it is a good idea to swim over your anchor and check it (water temp permitting of course).

Keiron

[Kenomac]

Regarding the Ultra pictured: Been there.... Done that.

Ken

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by kas_1611

How deep is the water? Find it hard to believe they didn't know they were dropping on rock as the water looks clear enough.

It was only about 6m deep and the water very clear. I agree the rocks should have been visible from the cat when dropping. It was surrounded by a large area of thick weed. I think they mistook the rock for a patch of sand as both are a similar colour. With even small waves, especially into the sun, the detail needed to identify rocks like this can be lost, so mistakes like this are easily made.

Of course if the water is not clear, if it is night, or rough, then you take your chances anyway.

This is another example where the "anchor" can hold a severe setting force, but not be reliable even at low windspeeds.

[cagney]

Apart from using your eyes to avoid rocky patches there are a couple of other tricks you can use in murky/very deep/ and/or cold water.
Chain moving across rocky bottom will "transmit" a characteristic sound and vibrations through the chain. Tune your ears to listen to this and make a habit of putting a foot on the chain, when it first get under tension after dropping the anchor (if it's safe to do so, of course). Later on if you suspect that you are dragging, put a foot on the chain. You may get a confirmation. This will of course not work in every situation.

/Thomas

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by cagney

Apart from using your eyes to avoid rocky patches there are a couple of other tricks you can use in murky/very deep/ and/or cold water.
Chain moving across rocky bottom will "transmit" a characteristic sound and vibrations through the chain. Tune your ears to listen to this and make a habit of putting a foot on the chain, when it first get under tension after dropping the anchor (if it's safe to do so, of course). Later on if you suspect that you are dragging, put a foot on the chain. You may get a confirmation. This will of course not work in every situation.

/Thomas

Thomas is right. Plus, at least in our boat, the vibration of chain sliding on rock is transmitted up to the hull: we hear it inside the boat, there's no doubt what's happening.

Ann