Kobra 2 Anchor - any comments?

[Weyalan]

I am thinking about buying a second anchor.

Boat is 40' yacht and weighs approx 8 tons loaded.

Current primary anchor is a basic 45 pound (20 kg) plough.

Am considering a Kobra 2 anchor - it scored very well in Boats & Gear independent testing ( http://chainsropesandanc-px.rtrk.co....st%20Nov09.pdf )

Anyone with experience using this anchor care to comment?

[Nicholson58]

OH BOY! Another anchor war!


We have ROCNA 54Kg as primary. 54# Bruce as secondary. We carry 6 anchors - all different. 35 Danforth up to 180# put-together Fisherman's

[Weyalan]

Not trying to start a war. Don't care what is the best anchor. Don't care what anchors you use unless you use a Kobra 2. Just want feedback from people who have used a Kobra 2.

[downunder]

Have you considered a SARCA Excel? Made just over Bass Straight in Victoria wheras the Korba would be imported.

The Korba certainly performed well in that test but I noted neither a SARCA or Rocna were tested.

Well priced a certainly sounds like a good second anchor being dismantable.

[Weyalan]

Sarca Excel is on my list for consideration. But as mentioned above am not particularly interested in what is the "best" anchor, just in actual feedback from Kobra2 owners...

[downunder]

Originally Posted by Weyalan

Sarca Excel is on my list for consideration. But as mentioned above am not particularly interested in what is the "best" anchor, just in actual feedback from Kobra2 owners...

I got that. I think Monte may have one on his L400.

cheers

[monte]

Weyalan,
Ok here's a quick review of our thoughts on the Kobra II

The good

I really like our Kobra II . Our cat is 12m x 7.3m 11T with a lot of windage (read: condomaran) 2m high freeboard etc. the factory supplied a 20kg delta, which we had and used on our last cat without problems. It was a good anchor for our 11.6m 8T cat but I wanted a bit bigger for this cat, so we went with a 25kg Kobra 2. If fits the bow roller neatly and construction is solid. We have used this anchor full time for over a year and probably anchored 90% of the time. We have anchored in sand, mud, shale, shells, weed, sand with rock, limestone with sand over, and so far it has set within 1m of the drop and held fast on all but one occasion. The one time it didn't set immediately was in soft mud and I slowly dragged it for 20m while reversing with 2 engines at 2200RPM before pulling it up and resetting it. Next time I reversed a bit slower to allow it to sink in. It generally sets like a rock and no amount of reverse revs will budge it.
We always use an anchor alarm with minimum radius set, and I also place a waypoint when setting it while the engines are in reverse at around 2200RPM and watch the waypoint/vessel while setting to gauge any movement. After a minute of that we are confident the anchor is set and I usually dive on it to confirm it's not fouled on a rock or anything. Without using an anchor alarm, it's hard to know if the anchor has dragged a few meters and reset, or slowly dragged, but the anchor alarm gives very good visual reference as to the swing and I would see even the slightest drag of 5m in that case.
The Kobra looks very similar in design to the delta and I'm not sure why it performed so much better in the anchor test linked above, or why one is called a spade type and the other a plough type.
We always like to have close to 5:1 scope but it's not always practical or possible and occasionally we reduce it to 3:1. There have been quite a few occasions where we have had 3:1 scope with steady 30K + wind and the Kobra held fast every time.
On one occasion with 3:1 scope we had 30K steady, gusting to 35K on light sand over limestone which I wasn't very confident with. The wind direction had changed 180 degrees and was blowing us onto a rocky lee shore, with 1m wind waves. We tried to let out more scope as all but one of the other yachts had left the anchorage, but found it too difficult to motor forward enough to reset the bridle. I was impressed but sat at the helm for 4hrs or so, watching the waypoint and ready to start the engines and up anchor, but there was no need. The wind eventually dropped to around 20K and we changed to 5:1 scope.
The Kobra handles wind direction changes easily enough. I've never seen it break out or reset, it just turns and stays buried. We've been through quite a few 180 and 360 degree wind changes.
Ive taken a few photos along ten way of the various sets and added them to noëlex's 'photos of anchors setting' thread, so you can take a look there if interested and there's a lot of good anchoring information on that thread as well. Generally all my photos look pretty much the same, with just the shank on the seabed. When raising it turns well on the bow roller and settles in place without much effort.

The bad

Well there's really nothing I can complain about with the Kobra II, except maybe the price. It's cheap, and if you're the kind of guy that likes to show off his shiny stainless ultra or similar while bow to at the dock, the Kobra might not be for you. It's not a $1000 anchor, it's probably not even a $250 anchor ( we bought ours used in La Rochelle for about $150 )

The ugly

Well, it's an anchor, hardly beautiful. Functional, practical and it works like a bought one

[Weyalan]

Hi Monte,
Thank you for the excellent feedback...

[Rapanui]

I echo Monte's comments. We retrofitted our Athena 38 with a 16kg Kobra 2 to replace a Brittany and found an immediate improvement as did the charterers. You need to let it settle before driving hard astern, but when we do it holds 2x30hp full astern. In Croatia, the Delta does not seem to be as effective as it is in the English Channel, although lots of boats have them, but the Kobra works well. The geometry must be subtly different although superficially they look very similar.
I dive on the anchor a lot and it really buries so only a small bit of shank if any, is visible. I did lots of research and was prepared to buy a Manson etc but clearly the Kobra was up there with the best but for some reason overlooked, probably because it is ridiculously cheap in the UK at least.

[Sandibar]

We have a 14kg KobraII. Boat is around 6 ton 35ft. Have not put it to much use since we mostly overnight in marinas. The few times it's been down, it's held backing down hard with 50hp without problems on a mud bottom.

It's cheap! Paid 160 eur new from SVB.de

[jheldatksuedu]

I would consider that a plow and a kobra are very similar if one doesn't work on a certain type of bottom the other most likely won't either. Try to have different types of anchors, when the Kobra fits the roller nice, the plow (your spare) won't fit in the bilge very nice.

[monte]

Here's a sizing guide

[LEOCAT66]

I like what I am reading on the KOBRA 2 anchor. Is there a distributor in the US? Could not find Plastimo US info except for LIFE RAFT service providers.

[jreiter190]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

OH BOY! Another anchor war!


We have ROCNA 54Kg as primary. 54# Bruce as secondary. We carry 6 anchors - all different. 35 Danforth up to 180# put-together Fisherman's

Same here.40 feet,16,000 lbs. Loaded. must be an ultralight, or French. You can't have too much ground tackle but ya gotta know how to use it.You'll eventually use it all, hopefully, not all at once.

[redsky49]

The test results you indicate were published six years ago. I can't recall other tests showing the Kobra outperforming their competitors. There may be better choices out there.

Price certainly is good.