Anchor DIY

[groundtackle]

B, Keep tinkering, it's getting there.
Chris

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by groundtackle

B, Keep tinkering, it's getting there.
Chris

There is a bit more to my anchor than meets the eye,
My Danforth and Bruce that came with the boat are not good anchors,
I am well and truly over dragging anchors,
Even tho it got bent at 30 degrees trying to hold my boat, It still let me get wrecked on the beach,

My anchor is over kill for my boat, But as long as my boat stays put in all conditions that I am likely to encounter in my over 12000 mile trip around Australia,

I will be more than happy that I can sleep peacefully at night on my anchor,

We do get winds here in excess of 100 KPH, Western Port Bay, Port Phillip Bay, Bass Straight,
We have tides that are exceptionally strong here as well
,
North Australia gets approx 8 cyclones a year, Thats an 8 thousand mile coastline, Qld, NT, and WA,
The chances of me being caught in one, is highly likely, over that distance,
Nrth West Australia have 10 metre fast flowing tides, ( The Kimberlys ) My anchor must hold,

I will be living on the hook, Once I set sail, I wont see inside a Marina again till I get back, Approx 2 years,
My shake down cruise in Bass Straight 3 weeks ago has proven to me just how capable my boat really is,
I spent one night with no water under me, I used the Danforth that night, It was sitting on the mud and the shank was sticking up out of the water about 3/4 of its length,
The tinkering with my new anchor has ended, It works, and I have proven it in real life conditions,
Its rock solid in 30 plus knots of wind, and 8 knots of flowing tide,
8 feet of water and about 15 feet of chain,
Restricted scope by the Piling behind me,
How it holds above 30 Knots remains to be tested, But it will be, soon enough,
I am confident that it will hold,

Cheers, Brian,
PS, Its not for sale, But can be copied once I have fully tested it in extreme conditions,

[Izikalvo]

Originally Posted by Mr B

It occurred when I was testing my anchor in my yard being towed with my car,
When I did a 180 turn, The chain got caught between the vertical bar and the hoop,
I remedied this by welding a Bar between the top of the vertical shank and the hoop,
It didnt get caught after that,
A few mods I did also, I extended the length of the shank to fit my roller better,
I widened the hoop by one inch either side to put more weight on the tip,
It now has 28 Kgs on the tip, The anchor weighs 38 Kgs,
It always sits with the tip of the anchor digging in,

Welding a bar between the roll bar and the shank is a good thing, overall your anchor looks sturdy and massive, question, do you happen to know what type of steel did you use? unless you oversized material, especially for the shank, you have to be aware of the forces on your anchor mainly lateral forces, that might bend the shank.

good job! please keep updating.

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by Izikalvo

Welding a bar between the roll bar and the shank is a good thing, overall your anchor looks sturdy and massive, question, do you happen to know what type of steel did you use? unless you oversized material, especially for the shank, you have to be aware of the forces on your anchor mainly lateral forces, that might bend the shank.

good job! please keep updating.

Bissalloy 450, It was left over from a Dozer blade, The front cutting edge I repaired,
Its as hard as the Hobs of Hell, Hahahaha
Bissalloy is a very High Tensile Strength steel,

This steel dont bend, Unless heated to a minimum 950 Celcius, A Red Heat,

To bend my anchor shank cold, Maybe a pressure of some 250 Ton Minimum,

I MIG welded it with S6 wire, Its High Tensile wire,

The steel was preheated to 150 Celcius to avoid cracking,

Essential and Critical to welding Bissaloy, Preheating, It must be over 150 C or it will crack,

Massive, Yep, It takes some grunt to drag it up by hand, 38 Kgs, Plus chain,

The one thing I didnt think of with it, It needs to be dragged out backwards every time, It buries itself every time,
It made cutting the slot in it worth the effort now, But it would have been a Dud if I couldnt retrieve it,

The water has been too deep and murky to see if the anchor had actually turned around on the tide change,
But I dont care, As the boat swings around, It still stays in the same spot,

[malbert73]

Originally Posted by Mr B

There is a bit more to my anchor than meets the eye,
My Danforth and Bruce that came with the boat are not good anchors,
I am well and truly over dragging anchors,
Even tho it got bent at 30 degrees trying to hold my boat, It still let me get wrecked on the beach,

My anchor is over kill for my boat, But as long as my boat stays put in all conditions that I am likely to encounter in my over 12000 mile trip around Australia,

I will be more than happy that I can sleep peacefully at night on my anchor,

We do get winds here in excess of 100 KPH, Western Port Bay, Port Phillip Bay, Bass Straight,
We have tides that are exceptionally strong here as well
,
North Australia gets approx 8 cyclones a year, Thats an 8 thousand mile coastline, Qld, NT, and WA,
The chances of me being caught in one, is highly likely, over that distance,
Nrth West Australia have 10 metre fast flowing tides, ( The Kimberlys ) My anchor must hold,

I will be living on the hook, Once I set sail, I wont see inside a Marina again till I get back, Approx 2 years,
My shake down cruise in Bass Straight 3 weeks ago has proven to me just how capable my boat really is,
I spent one night with no water under me, I used the Danforth that night, It was sitting on the mud and the shank was sticking up out of the water about 3/4 of its length,
The tinkering with my new anchor has ended, It works, and I have proven it in real life conditions,
Its rock solid in 30 plus knots of wind, and 8 knots of flowing tide,
8 feet of water and about 15 feet of chain,
Restricted scope by the Piling behind me,
How it holds above 30 Knots remains to be tested, But it will be, soon enough,
I am confident that it will hold,

Cheers, Brian,
PS, Its not for sale, But can be copied once I have fully tested it in extreme conditions,

I keep wondering why you use the danforth? Maybe because it’s lighter and easier to retrieve without a windlass?
I might recommend you build a second of your anchors in a smaller size you can use every time you anchor. Gemini’s weigh about 7-8000 kg right? A 20-25 kg anchor of new gen type should be plenty for everyday anchoring

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by malbert73

I keep wondering why you use the danforth? Maybe because it’s lighter and easier to retrieve without a windlass?
I might recommend you build a second of your anchors in a smaller size you can use every time you anchor. Gemini’s weigh about 7-8000 kg right? A 20-25 kg anchor of new gen type should be plenty for everyday anchoring

Thats not as stupid as it sounds, Its a very good idea actually, Thank you,
My first one was all trial and error,
The weight didnt come into it, I just wanted one that worked, Every time,
I still have more testing to do with it,
My boat hasnt been back in the water very long, so testing has been intermitant as I need to repair and fix all the other things that need fixing on my boat,
Which at the moment have got priority, Lining up the motor with the drive shaft, and getting the Universal joint back in,
The drive leg hydraulics sprung a leak, So I lost a week repairing that,
It all takes time, and Im only one bloke,


The Danforth worked some times, Yes it was lighter and easier to use,
But it seemed to drag every time I really relied on it,

Now I have tested mine and it does work, Every time so far, Fingers crossed,
I will build a new lighter one the same as the big one,
But I will keep the big one as the main anchor for extreme conditions,

[Spot]

Thanks for posting up your DIY, Mr B.
It's been many years since I've made an anchor.

Has anyone tried the 'Storm' design in the 8-12 kg range?
My big boat is relatively small and there is no roller, winch, or locker.

I am currently using a baby Danforth than came with the boat.

[Mr B]

I decided to make myself a new lighter everyday use anchor, It came out at 42 Lbs or 18 KGs
Its a copy of a copy of a copy,

My new 40 Kg anchor works, but is just to heavy for every day use,
Pulling it up by hand, No Windlass, Is not viable, I will keep it for angry days when needed,

Well after testing it by dragging it around my yard behind the car,
Its a 100 % Dud, Hahahaha

Well back to the drawing board, A few changes to it, Should sort it out,
At least this one is light enough to drag up by hand,

[malbert73]

Great let us know how it works! Good idea- your daily anchor should be the biggest you can use regularly and not so big that you keep it stowed

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by Mr B

,

My new 40 Kg anchor works, but is just to heavy for every day use,
Pulling it up by hand, No Windlass, Is not viable, I will keep it for angry days when needed,

FFS get a decent windlass (you have a boat costing a sizable chunk of coin)
Use a decent anchor
Sleep well every night
Its not hard.

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by malbert73

Great let us know how it works! Good idea- your daily anchor should be the biggest you can use regularly and not so big that you keep it stowed

I just want a small one for temporary anchoring, One that holds,
One I might and can pull up a couple of times a day, easily by hand,

The big one is still on the bow as a permanent serious anchor,
But its just a tad heavy to pull up a couple of times a day by hand,

I have an attachment on the big anchor that allows the small one to run through it,
I just change the chain over to the big anchor if needed, Tie a rope on the small one and it drops out of the way, Clear of the big one,
Only takes a few moments to change over, One shackle,

I moved the centre piece forward a bit, Widened the hoop,
It almost works now, Its Very close,

It just need the hoop widened a bit more to make the point dig in more deeply,
I am testing it on compacted crushed gravel, Its as hard as the hobs of hell,

So if I can get it to dig in on that crap and stop my car, ,
It should work on a seabed in almost all conditions, Especially with a long scope,
I always use fifty to one hundred feet of chain out,
As long as I have 3 feet under me at low tide, My rudders are clear,

Both anchors together weigh 58 Kgs, So its not a great weight on my bows,
My Plimsol line is still about one inch above the waterline,

Coming from Fiji, My Plimsol line was 2 inches under the waterline,
I have taken a lot of unnecessary weight off my boat,

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

FFS get a decent windlass (you have a boat costing a sizable chunk of coin)
Use a decent anchor
Sleep well every night
Its not hard.

I do have a decent anchor, I just want a lighter one as well,
I do have a windlass, One that goes in my chain locker out of sight when not being used,
I just prefer to drag it up by hand, Keeps me fit,

I do sleep well at night now, My anchors work,
A few small mods and the little one will work too,

My Danforth and Bruce anchors that came with the boat, Dont work,
I didnt sleep at all with those two,

There are people on here that carry four anchors on their boats, Hahahahaha

[Mr B]

Second try at minor mods on my new small anchor didnt go too well,
I still couldnt get the point to dig in,

It just slid across the compacted crushed rock I was testing it on,

The ends of the hoop needed to be wider, where they met the base plate,
I moved the hoop out wider, But still not enough to dig the point in,,
So I welded some extra plate tabs on the end of the hoops,

That made the sides lift the base plate and the Point was definately pointing into the ground now,

The anchor weighs 37 Lb Approx, 24 Kgs, and 25 Lb on the tip,
I can pull that up easily by hand now, It will be my day anchor,
It fits snugly into my big anchor which is on my bow,
Change the shackle, and I can have either anchor in use when needed,
Both anchors combined weight is 64 Kgs, So its not even a persons weight out there,


Dragging it across my yard behind my car, It now digs into the Compacted crushed rock of my yard,
Even my Tractor wont dig into the crushed rock in my yard,

So it should work in almost any thing softer than my yard under water,
Its now on my boat waiting for a trial,

The broken finger was my berth, But it broke in half on Friday with the high winds we had,
I was doing 9 knots on half the Genoa coming back to the Berth,
15 knots and gusting to 20 knots of wind,

My copy of a copy of a copy of an anchor seems to work well,
Some one will certainly tell me what it is a copy of,

Cheers, Brian,

[Walterrr]

Have been reading to find out what anchor to buy. I like the design of Storm. Very similar designs, or derivates actually (?), are currently available under the names Adriatic and Viking.


The Viking anchor seems a direct copy of Storm, with bolts instead of welded, including holes in the fluke.The Adriatic Marine anchor is also knock-down, but from plate and no tube for the roll bar, and no holes in the fluke.


How would Storm, Viking and Adriatic compare for holding power in sand?
Load tests are not available, surface area of the blade will differ, and tube or plate can have different deep-setting implications..?


Anyone?


BR, Walter


For reference:
Anchor tests https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_cYNza74BYYsuOjhmAHAdA/videos
Adriatic https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3-...XJIY_2RceK-y4A
Viking https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPv...idtjMDhoI9rCsQ

[Izikalvo]

Originally Posted by Walterrr

Have been reading to find out what anchor to buy. I like the design of Storm. Very similar designs, or derivates actually (?), are currently available under the names Adriatic and Viking.


The Viking anchor seems a direct copy of Storm, with bolts instead of welded, including holes in the fluke.The Adriatic Marine anchor is also knock-down, but from plate and no tube for the roll bar, and no holes in the fluke.


How would Storm, Viking and Adriatic compare for holding power in sand?
Load tests are not available, surface area of the blade will differ, and tube or plate can have different deep-setting implications..?


Anyone?


BR, Walter


For reference:
Anchor tests https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_cYNza74BYYsuOjhmAHAdA/videos
Adriatic https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3-...XJIY_2RceK-y4A
Viking https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPv...idtjMDhoI9rCsQ

Walter, for the plate tube question, a rollbar made of flat material will sink in the mud and the anchor will not roll, which is among other things a rollbar made with a tube is better.

For the similarity you see between Mantus and Viking, see here.
https://vikinganchors.com/knowledge-...tus-m1-anchors