Sarca Excel

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by JonJo

Good idea, though you need to ensure the rope is sufficiently deep not to get caught in anyone's prop. We once had a longer 6mm buoy line, with the buoy marked - 'anchor for Josepheline' and someone tried to tie onto it - so the idea of a subsurface buoy is good.

Yes good point. The buoy is underwater so cannot be seen by other boats. I very rarely anchor in depths where this is problem, but its easy to shorten the rope for those instances.
The salty types would shorten it with an alpine bend, or similar, me, I cable tie it to the chain so it only sticks up a foot or so.

If you regularly anchor in shallow water a shorter, say 1m, rope would work almost as well.

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by JonJo

In terms of finding the anchor to see how its set, we would agree (big problem). We paint the shank of our anchors, all of them, bright yellow. It stands out in the seabed. But often we find that the complete anchor and 2m of chain have completely disappeared - but this would also be true of a Spade and Fortress (correctly sized for our yacht).

J

I like the painting of the shank idea, but not just for finding a well-dug-in anchor. A nice chrome yellow, perhaps with the ship's registry number picked out in black, would both discourage thieves and would avoid toe-stubbing when going forward on dark nights!

Meaning I should consider painting the tops of my bollards, as well, I suppose.

[JonJo]

Originally Posted by S/V Alchemy

I like the painting of the shank idea, but not just for finding a well-dug-in anchor. A nice chrome yellow, perhaps with the ship's registry number picked out in black, would both discourage thieves and would avoid toe-stubbing when going forward on dark nights!

Meaning I should consider painting the tops of my bollards, as well, I suppose.

We bought some distressed yellow from a DIY store, its one of those paints supposed to provide rust prevention. Interestingly Spade paint the top inside of their fluke yellow, and I always wondered why. When its set the fluke is well buried, but you can often see the top of the shank. When you lift it its the shank that comes through the murk first (if its not clear water) - which is another reason for having a yellow shank. You could use a fluor spray paint - but it costs more and does not last so long.

Noelex, I had read about people who have a trip line cable tied to the shank and chain long enough to reach the surface. I had always wondered what happened if the chain twisted, which obviously happens. Your way over comes that problem as you would have only a small portion of the trip rope cable tied as some of the trip rope would be loose and 'floating' and grababble with a long boathook. I appreciate you dive, but diving is not a bundle of laughs if you are in a cold water anchorage (especially when you have reached a certain level of maturity!). I suspect there is no perfect answer (for cold water anchorages) except a wet suit.

Somewhere at the back of my mind I feel someone wanting to me this is the situation for which a SARCA, Boss and Supreme are made - with their slotted shanks. I prefer the Excel + your suggestions, despite cold water! Though for ground chains in Greek harbours, I'd be using a slotted shank SARCA (came up on another thread).

[noelex 77]

I use an anchor buoy rarely
Clipping a retrieval line to the anchor chain with cable ties is often suggested, but personally I feel it is of marginal use for the trouble involved.
The 2m (6 foot) buoyed line is however permanently attached to my anchor and I think earns its keep.

[Aroona]

I have only just recently joined this forum and are finding all the information and comment from real boat owners very interesting, so much of what we read about boating is written from those that rarely get on the water much at all. Last night I read many of the comments about the performance of Sarca Excel Anchors. I am the owner of Aroona which operates out of Cairns in far North Queensland, we have had 2 Sarca Excel anchors on our vessel since it was launched in November 2010. Aroona is a 70 foot raised pilothouse made by Outer Reef and weighs approximately 65 t. We operate along a large area of the Great Barrier Reef which means the conditions in which we anchor are many and varied from loose rubbly coral to fine white sand and from hard Reef to heavy silt. In all these conditions we find our 88 KG Excel works extremely well and has now stood the test of time. Aroona sometimes operates as a mothership to the Game fishing fleet and at different times we have had two 45 feet game boats, one hanging of each side of Aroona in up to 35 kn winds and it has never let go. I did read someone commented about how the anchor will dig in deep in certain conditions and we have found the same but so far haven't had any trouble recovering it.

[downunder]

Aroona,

What is size and weight of your vessel. As a motherboat I am thinking 60-80 ft????

Cheers

[Mr B]

65 Ton and 70 foot long

[downunder]

Duh. should have read again.

[JonJo]

The anchor poll survey has now been ammended to include the existance of a whole bucket load of designs, including the Excel (not sure that it differentiates the Super SARCA from the Excel - but you cannot dream up everything!)

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...oll-92960.html

Have a happy and healthy 2013.

[Cotemar]

Yes, the Anchor poll now includes:

SARCA Excel

Super SARCA

[Junglenuts]

From my experience I find that the No 3 Excel works really well with my Lightwave 38 cat. We have cruised locally in Pittwater and in up and down the coast as far north as Bowen and have experienced many different types of bottom from gravelly-coral sand and rubble to fine sand and also mud. In the fine sand and mud we almost always have to break it out as it seems to set so deeply. We have also experienced several heavy blows where the boats around us with plough style anchors have not held. We were having some issues with the anchor not rolling over on retrieval but after discussion with Rex at Sarca we seem to have fixed that problem (thanks Rex).
We like the idea of painting the shaft and on occasions we use an anchor marker/retrieval buoy if we are concerned that it may get stuck on something like debris or coral heads. We also used a second No 2 Excel in Wathumba Lagoon on the back of Fraser Island to keep us locked in a smallish hole and it worked a treat but by far the most graphic experience of its holding power was in Bobbin Head where we experienced a very heavy funneling breeze which I estimate by the amount of spray on the water that the pressure was approaching 50 Kts. Each time a gust hit the anchor chain was really stretched but the anchor held - we had about 5 times scope out in 5-6m of water and as mentioned earlier boats with plough style anchors didn't so we are really happy with our decision to change to the Ecxel.

[44'cruisingcat]

We were anchored in Wathumba around 20-30 metres away from our sistership. They were using their new Sarca Excel, us our bruce. Very similar boats with similar sized anchors, similar scope, same size chain, in good holding sand. We had winds around 20-25 kts.

They dragged, we didn't budge. Second time they've dragged in less than 12 months with that anchor.

[Junglenuts]

Thats very interesting, I recall that in very shallow water at Whitehaven Beach that the anchor buried itself so deeply that even the first around 5m of chain was not visible. I was lucky enough to miss a strong blow in Lady Musgrave Lagoon where a number of my associates were staying and who had a very troubled night sitting up on anchor watch fortunately we were in Bundaberg tied up to the dock.

[Tradewind 35]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

We were anchored in Wathumba around 20-30 metres away from our sistership. They were using their new Sarca Excel, us our bruce. Very similar boats with similar sized anchors, similar scope, same size chain, in good holding sand. We had winds around 20-25 kts.

They dragged, we didn't budge. Second time they've dragged in less than 12 months with that anchor.

Intersting post 44cruisingcat - that is the first negative report I have heard regarding the Sarca Excel. I have been looking for an upgrade to my Delta anchors and the Excel has been getting positive press. I have been very happy with the Delta over many years but I think the new designs are an improvement. The Bruce would not get sea room on my ship but it certainly has devotees- in my home port Weymouth (Dorset) for example almost every sports fishing boat has a Bruce - so they must work for them. Neither the Mantus or Sarca Excel are available in UK so will keep dangling on the Delta for now.

[JonJo]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

We were anchored in Wathumba around 20-30 metres away from our sistership. They were using their new Sarca Excel, us our bruce. Very similar boats with similar sized anchors, similar scope, same size chain, in good holding sand. We had winds around 20-25 kts.

They dragged, we didn't budge. Second time they've dragged in less than 12 months with that anchor.

Interesting comment, any anchor can drag but for an Excel to drag and a Bruce to hold would be almost, or totally, unheard of. It would be unusual for an owner of an Anchor Right product not to have contacted the manufacturer direct in this case. We've been using our Excel for 7 years now and have not dragged since we bought it, previously when we used a brand name CQR clone our anchoring was predicated with the idea we would inevitably drag. So when we anchor now we are sure to wake up in the place we were the previous night! I'd be suggesting that the owner of your sister ship contact Anchor Right immediately, outline the situation - as if the fault is that of the anchor then I am sure they will make some sort of positive and useful comment. Obviously if your sistership does not contact Anchor Right one might assume the fault was not that of the anchor.

Jonathan