Photos of Anchors Setting

[NornaBiron]

Originally Posted by noelex 77

The only listing for this anchorage says "This is a good place for a lunch and swimming break...........

That sounds like the description of our favourite winter anchorage!

[wsmurdoch]

How does an anchor 'know' which way is up? How does it 'know' it is leaning 15 degrees.

My 44lb Bruce, like your photos of claw anchors, oftentimes sets on its side in sand or in weed over sand under full reverse from my Yanmar 3HM35F turning a two blade fixed prop. Other times it slips into the bottom like one would expect it to. I have a dynamometer and have measured the force on the anchor chain in full reverse. At 3500 rpm I get about 300 lb.

Your photos of Bruce and Delta anchors (I have one of each on the bow) are typical of what I have seen swimming in the Bahamas over the last seven winters.

This is a great thread. I only regret that I have no photos to contribute.

[Jason Flare]

Originally Posted by wsmurdoch

How does an anchor 'know' which way is up? How does it 'know' it is leaning 15 degrees.

I believe it's two things, gravity and anchor design.

Gravity puts it on the bottom and as it's being pulled across the bottom anchor design sends it evening itself up and cutting into the bottom.

Others can correct me if I'm inaccurate.

[noelex 77]

This boat was in a different anchorage to ours, but close enough to reach with a long snorkel. Its Delta had been dropped in some sand, but had dragged about 8m to this point and was still slowly dragging, as you can see by the puffs of sand. The wind was only 15 knots. The owners are usually unaware of these slow drags.

As you can see it is not well buried with much of the fluke exposed. It was just about to hit a patch of heavy weed.

The scope was only 3:1 in 7m and the Delta does not tend to do well at these short scopes.

[noelex 77]

This was a Bugel copy in the same anchorage as the Delta above.

As you can see it too is struggling. It is slowly dragging in light/medium weed. At this point it had only traveled a few meters, so not much force had been applied. There is some hope it might dig in and set properly with a bit more time and force, but it does not look promising at this stage. 4:1 in 7m.

[noelex 77]

This is a stainless steel Delta. It was dropped in very deep water of 20m+, hence not a very good photo. The anchor has not been subject to much force. It has rotated level and has achieved some bury in only a couple metres, but the shank is still above the bottom and it will need more force to set properly.

It is a promising beginning, but the force applied does not give us much indication of what this anchor will do.

I (or my mermaid) have managed to photograph every anchor we have seen and photos of each one have been posted. I will persist with this so the photos will continue to be a true and random representation of how different anchor models perform in the real world, rather than just specifically selected good or bad examples of the set of a particular design. Unfortunately, it will mean the inclusion of some photos like this that really don't tell us much.

[noelex 77]

This Ultra was dropped by a very orange powerboat . They dropped it quite close to my Mantus (only about 20m away), but it was in the much deeper water (20m) off the shallower shelf. They Med-moored on the shore close to me (actually inside my swing circle with a change in wind direction due . Fortunately they only stayed a few hours.

It is hard to see what is going on here because of the very deep water, but the Ultra has set well with only the shank visible. It is nice and level. It has set reasonably quickly, although still not quite as rapidly as the concave roll bar anchors. Not much detail in the photo, but a great result from the anchor.

[monte]

Cool boat! C'mon Noëlex, hold your breath, it's only 20m! We want glossy close ups !!!

[Jim Cate]

This Ultra was dropped by a very orange powerboat

My, what a tasteful display of aesthetic maturity.

good grief, Charley Brown...

Jim

[Coops]

Maybe it's the local rescue boat. Bloody ugly anyway. Which is what Jim said but much less eloquently.

Coops.

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by noelex 77

Thanks for the comments.

The water here is clear which makes it very easy to see what is going on. I can sometimes see an anchor from the surface even without a bathoscope.

The Mantus is in 7m (20 feet) the Spade was is in about 9m (30feet) and the the two Delta anchors about 5m (15 feet).

The camera is an Olympus TGi 2. It is waterproof down to 18m on its own, but I use it with an underwater housing that is waterproof to 40m. I don't dive deeper than 18m, (about 12m is my limit) so in theory the camera should be fine without the housing. Snorkelling most days in summer I think sooner or later there is likely to be poor seal on the camera door so the extra protection of the waterproof housing is good insurance.

This thread has inspired me to get something better for UW than my GoPro but as I have no plans to go on any real dive trips I could not justify the UW housing for 1Dx or 5D2, so I have followed your lead and got the latest Olympus, the TG-3. I have decided to risk it without a housing a 5m is about my limit.

Only had it for a day, but I am impressed with the GPS & Wifi tech and want that in a DSLR now

Off to the boat this weekend for 2 weeks and will perhaps do some anchor shooting

[Factor]

Originally Posted by cwyckham

I went with a Boss. I sure wish I could post pictures of the Boss.

Me too. Manson is an excellent reputable company and I like the concept of the boss, how is it performing so far.

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by hoppy

Off to the boat this weekend for 2 weeks and will perhaps do some anchor shooting

Great and thanks to all those who have contributed photos so far.

The TG3 is almost the same as my TG2, so you may find these settings useful.

The settings I have found best are:

Flash off
Timer off
Exposure -0.3
Underwater 1 (the fish setting)
ISO auto
Sequential shooting
12m
4:3

These settings can be saved on C1 (or C2) so they are easy to reproduce.
Most of the shots I take are at maximum wide angle.

It is worth using a photo program to add a bit more contrast especially on the deeper shots. I use Snapseed.

[noelex 77]

This was a Kobra dropped in lovely powdery soft sand and shallow water between the two islands behind the orange boat. You can see from the very short drag mark that is has not had any force applied to it and this tells us nothing about the anchor.

If you want to know what a Kobra looks like if you drop it without applying any force here it is:

[noelex 77]

This was a Rocna. It was at the other anchorage so I didn't see the drop. I was snorkelling over while they dropped so the pictures are still a little cloudy. The scope was about 4:1 in 6m of water.

It was a poor set at this stage. You can see the anchor has a very high list. It had been dropped near a small clump of light weed. On the plus side looking under the weed the thin toe had cut through the weed roots and was just starting to engage the substrate underneath. However, only the first inch of the fluke had penetrated and the anchor had very little grip.

Part of the problem was that wind was very light. It would have been very interesting to see what would have happened with some more wind, or engine setting force. Was the toe going to dig in further and rotate the anchor level? Unfortunately, the boat only stayed for a few hours.