Photos of Anchors Setting

[Panope]

Nice footage Noelex. I noticed a large area of rust on the fluke of the anchor. Can you tell us how old and/or how many nights that anchor as been in use?

Feel free and post whatever you wish on the Video thread as it as been dormant for a while and can use new material.

I actually shot a bunch of footage of my Fortress anchor yesterday and will post as soon as the voice-over and editing are completed.

Cheers,

Steve

[NornaBiron]

Originally Posted by Panope

Nice footage Noelex. I noticed a large area of rust on the fluke of the anchor. Can you tell us how old and/or how many nights that anchor as been in use?

Cheers,

Steve

We bought our Spade in the spring of 2013 and it has been in pretty much constant use since then. We live aboard and try to anchor year round. Since getting the Spade we've spent three months in a marina (on lazy lines) and one month on the hard.

The galvanising (and yellow Spade paint) has worn away so we painted the anchor white a couple of months ago when we were on the hard.

[noelex 77]

Thanks Steve.

I will post the video on your thread. I know videos take a lot of work, but please keep adding to your great series. When I see anchors performing underwater it is amazing how dramatic the difference is between between good and not so good anchors. Hopefully the combination of still images and videos will help convince a few more people.

Just a few days ago we had a boat almost drag into us in only about 20 knots and a nice mud bottom .

[noelex 77]

Here are some still photos of the great set of the Spade. Note the clouds of substrate normally mean the anchor is moving (dragging), but in this case the photos have been taken immediately after the anchor was set. The Spade was rock solid.

[noelex 77]

I have been trying to work through my anchor photos from last year and I still have some catching up to do.

Up to now I have shown at least one photo of every anchor we have seen since ApriI 2014. I did this deliberately.

There seems to be a general perception that most anchors set well. This is not what is seen underwater. In these admittedly difficult and hard bottomed anchorages, many anchor designs struggle to set. They do this consistently, irrespective of scope and technique. Some designs perform much better. By showing every single anchor over 18 months, I hope I have removed any suggestion of bias or selective reporting.

Unfortunately, there are now just many too many photos, so from now on I will show a selection of the more interesting cases.

Let's start with the Mantus.

I have not had many photos of anchors in weed, so here is an unpublished one from last year. The Mantus has cut through the thick weed brilliantly. Remember this is a big anchor (57Kg) that I think is a help when penetrating weed, but the long thin stiletto like blade of the Mantus helps to cut through these weed roots without any problem.

Thick weed is the weakness of most of the new generation anchors. All anchors can grip the weed itself. This provides reasonable holding in mild/moderate winds, but is not enough in strong wind. An anchor that can slice through the weed roots to the substrate below is needed then.

The modern new generation anchors are very versatile. They will provide at least good holding in almost any reasonable substrate, especially if oversized. Thick weed is an exception. Unfortunately, the specialised weed anchors like the Fishermans are not very practical for a number of reasons. So a new generation anchor that can cope with thick weed is a major improvement. Thick weed should always be avoided if possible, but I think the Mantus has done exceptionally well so far.

[noelex 77]

This is a photo from today. We are currently cruising the Saronic Gulf. The sand here appears significantly softer than experienced before in Greece. 7.5 m @ 5:1.

Softish sand is the ideal medium. Even the less good anchor designs can penetrate, so it is not as useful for separating the penetrating ability of different anchor models, but it does make for nice deeply buried anchor photos.

The softer substrate tends to make the water less clear, but the anchors can dig down a long way. The sand is not as soft as back home in Australia, but it's getting closer.

This was today's performance of the Mantus. You can see the anchor has buried deeply, almost half the roll bar is under the substrate. It also pulled down many metres of chain. Without the large rollbar or float there would be no indication of where the anchor was located. This is under engine power alone, the wind was very light. Also note the setting mark has largely disappeared.

Very fine weed like this does not have any impact.

Most anchor models will do well in this sort of substrate. So hopefully I will see some of the poorer anchor designs finally performing well.

[jmtindle3]

All these years I must be doing something wrong. I have had a Delta on my Jeanneau Sun Fizz for three years in Mexico. Best anchor I ever owned except my Fortress. I then moves the the Caribbean with a Jeanneau 45 for 9 years. Probably dragged a few times because of extreme weather or poor bottom conditions. Never dove on my anchor because of depth and water conditions. Just tried to make sure the anchor was in tight. I have had to re-anchor a few times because of bottom conditions but always managed to get the hook in. I sleep well at night. I just bought a Jeanneau 39i and put a new Delta on it. So far no problems. The first boat was a 40' mono hull with a 35# Delta. Second boat was a Jeanneau with a 45# Delta and the last boat has a 35#Delta. I would like to see more results using more normal size boats and anchors. I think you are testing with real big steel boats and huge anchors you are going to find different results compared to smaller boats with smaller anchors. Keep up the good work. I have enjoyed it

[noelex 77]

Thanks for the comments.

The Delta is a good general purpose anchor, but if you look at the photos it is hard to find a single image where the Delta has done better than the top of the line anchors such as the Mantus, Rocna and steel Spade.

The top of line anchors are more expensive, but underwater I see a significant difference in performance. This difference is not obvious to owners until the anchor is stressed. I hope the photos show there is a marked difference between good and not so good anchors even if in many conditions even a poor anchor will provide adequate holding.

The size of the anchors I photograph (apart from my own) have been chosen by the owners. I have no control over this parameter. In the more remote anchorages I visit most boats choose anchors significantly over the recommended size table.

A smaller anchor will have less holding force, but with the smaller blade area it should dive deeper and look better in the photos for the same setting force. There are exceptions: small anchors often do not set well in weed.

[NornaBiron]

Originally Posted by jmtindle3

I think you are testing with real big steel boats and huge anchors you are going to find different results compared to smaller boats with smaller anchors.

I think the point to remember is that the photos in this thread are not a 'test'. They are a record of real life, real conditions, real (differing) techniques and are therefore probably much more valid than tests.

[Panope]

Originally Posted by NornaBiron

I think the point to remember is that the photos in this thread are not a 'test'. They are a record of real life, real conditions, real (differing) techniques and are therefore probably much more valid than tests.

I'll second that.

But some tests are better than others

Steve

[cwyckham]

Originally Posted by NornaBiron

I think the point to remember is that the photos in this thread are not a 'test'. They are a record of real life, real conditions, real (differing) techniques and are therefore probably much more valid than tests.

Yes and no.

Having many varying techniques tells us whether an anchor style is tolerant of poor technique, but it also means we don't know for any particular photo whether the anchor failed or the skipper did (other than obvious cases of inverted anchors not getting their tip down, etc.)

And unfortunately, many of the photos in this thread are based on a single part of the med with particular bottom conditions. Luckily, this happens to be a very challenging bottom type, but I get excited when the occasional photo from elsewhere is added as well.

This is still a massively important and useful thread, but the data needs to be recognized for what it is.

The same can be said for the amazing video thread. Standardized testing, but only in one bottom type. So amazing data, super useful, but with some limitations.

The two threads taken together almost make the ultimate data set and basically tell the same story. They have been a very important addition to the anchor-aholic's toolbox, I think, and I thank both authors for their many, many hours of dedicated work.

[kas_1611]

Originally Posted by cwyckham

And unfortunately, many of the photos in this thread are based on a single part of the med with particular bottom conditions. Luckily, this happens to be a very challenging bottom type, but I get excited when the occasional photo from elsewhere is added as well.

If you look carefully I think you might find quite a large area of the Med has been covered with differing bottoms. I, for example, have submitted several pictures from various anchorages around the Croatian Adriatic which has its own peculiarities, not to mention the 180º wind shifts.

On top of that there have been several submissions from as far afield as Australia and in many differing substrates. We must remember that not all sand is equal although it may look it.

Just pointing out it's not all one bit of the Med

[noelex 77]

This was an interesting anchorage from last year.

We were anchored off Skopelos island (the one featured in the film Mama Mia) and we spent a couple of days there with some of the most intense thunderstorms I have ever experienced.

Unfortunately, the island fared quite badly with a lot of damage. This is just a sample of photos of the aftermath from the local newspaper (not my images).










We found out later the locals were quite worried about us and prayed for our safety, which is very touching, but I think we had one of the safest spots on the island. Being hit by a floating car was perhaps the greatest danger .

The thunderstorms also produced violent changes in wind direction. As each storm cell passed over the wind shifted 180°. This is not unusual with thunderstorms, but these were violent with frequent changes and it went on for 48 hours. Fortunately, the wind itself while moderately strong at times was very localised and did not reach the storm force proportions we sometimes see in winter.

Not a great photo, but as you can see the Mantus has not moved. The constant 360° rotation by the shank has dug out a large circular crater. It's hard to see from the photo , but it was a deep hole.




Ideally an anchor responds to changes in wind direction by staying buried and shuffling around to a new wind direction. Providing they are set reasonably to begin with the best anchors will do this consistently. This is an vital property of good primary anchor.

This was a tough a test. The rapid changes allowed little time for the anchor to bed itself in after the rotation and the short duration did not leave much time for the sand to consolidate around the anchor.

[Jim Cate]

My goodness, Nolex, what are those cars doing to each other? I've heard the odd rumour about the Greeks, but their cars, too???

Jim

[cwyckham]

Haha, nice one, Jim.

Noelex, that's a crazy story! What a testament to that anchor.