Why Are Next-Gen Anchors Considered 'Better' ?

[conachair]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

apologies for a short hijack . . . but I am curious to hear reactions from those with a lot of anchoring experience about this comment. Have you all lost anchors? Just how common is this?

Only know of one, in Brazil. Through stupidity. ( Not me )

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

apologies for a short hijack . . . but I am curious to hear reactions from those with a lot of anchoring experience about this comment. Have you all lost anchors? Just how common is this?

When we started out we were (and still are) prepared with a 'spare' but in fact we have never lost an anchor, nor had to cut one loose. We have only once been happy to have used a trip line (In flying fish cove, Christmas island where the anchor was 80' down and stuck in some boulders, but the trip line pulled it up)

I have never lost an anchor but have come close 3times I can free dive reasonably deep, but I needed Scuba equipment borrowed from another boat (for a bottle of whisky) to free one of the anchors.
The chain was wrapped around a coral head and even though I could see how it was caught no amount of boat maneuvering would free it.
After an all day effort another boat entered the anchorage with 2 Scuba tanks on the back.

[osirissail]

Originally Posted by Auspicious

I think losing anchors is an apocryphal story based on a very few incidents that has become part of the cruising culture and repeated by the "cut and pasters."
Geez they tick me off.

Sorry to "tick you off" but out in the real world of world cruising losing an anchor is not uncommon. Losing an anchor also includes breaking one.
- - Twice in 6 years I have had anchors lost, one of which was broken trying to recover it.
- - In that same time period I have had 3 cruising friends lose or have to jettison an anchor.
- - In a lot of Caribbean islands the harbors bottoms have quite a number of sunken wrecks from previous hurricanes. I almost lost one anchor when it snagged a 30 ft section of a sunken sail boat. In other harbors I have been in. Another cruising friend lost his anchor when it dropped down a hatch of a sunken wreck when deployed. I have snagged lost mooring chains, and a wide assortment of other debris including once a bowling ball in Bequia. Cement blocks are very common bottom debris along with "rubble" fields. None of these things are charted so you take your chances.
- - Just a month ago in Charlotte Amalie a "minimalist" budge cruiser anchored abeam me broke both his anchor and bow roller system when he snagged a sunken mooring chain.
- - What are you going to do if you lose or break you "only" anchor? Welcome to the real world of cruising.

[ironworker]

Originally Posted by Roaring Girl

We do carry a fishermans but have never used it ... and that's the rub. 100lbs is a heavy bit of inconveniently shaped metal with lots of sharp bits. Why bother to do it the hard way, even if you have built the boat yourself?

They are supposed to be very good in mud and for grappling something like a coral head (but should you be doing that?)

thanks for the reply roaring girl and boatman61 im still trying to keep the traditional look going on but i dont want to hook coral heads and the swing of the boat could get the chain hung like the article said ive got a couple of danforths about 75 lbs ill try one of these thanks again

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by boatman61

... 3 days of 40kt+ kabatic winds while anchored off Cascais...

Katabatic winds? Cascais?
➥ Weather Facts: Katabatic winds - Weather UK - weatheronline.co.uk

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by ironworker

thanks for the reply roaring girl and boatman61 im still trying to keep the traditional look going on but i dont want to hook coral heads and the swing of the boat could get the chain hung like the article said ive got a couple of danforths about 75 lbs ill try one of these thanks again

No need to scrap the idea or the look.... just use it where suitable..
As for Danforths... I've never trusted them since one 'flipped' on me and trapped a pebble which stopped the flukes dropping and resetting...
the tide was running fast and my old Seagull had the carb stripped for cleaning... next thing I was swept down onto the chain ferry across Poole harbour entrance... very embarrassing as I was considered the 'Bee's Knees' sailor at my B/yard...

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Katabatic winds? Cascais?
➥ Weather Facts: Katabatic winds - Weather UK - weatheronline.co.uk

Gord.... when the 'Portuguese Trades' kick in there can be a hell of an acceleration down the Cabo's.... Roca and Rasa are only 4.5 miles apart... it deflects down and along the valley into the bay in Cascais/Estoril....
1/2 mile away its just a F4 but off the beach its screaming down the hill... we ended up heading up into Lisbon and Alcantara...
It was not a Marina back then, just a mix of old coasters and traditional Portuguese boats tied to the quays..

[Blue Crab]

I got hung on the bottom somewheres west of Key West before GPS was invented. In fact, cut and pasters hadn't been invented. Not having gills behind my ears like Kevin Costner, I grabbed my scuba gear and headed down. I found the anchor snagged in a bird's nest of shrimpers' tow cable, maybe 1" stuff. Too big to cut.

It was a cloudy day so on the dark side, even at 30'. I hovered around assessing the risk of getting my skinny butt entangled in the cable. I could read the label on that new Danforth (a then-gen modern anchor in those days) as I decided to get back aboard and lose the anchor, chain, lotsa rode...the works. What ya gonna do? I was alone so no one to help me if I got snagged.

Auspicious: What's the big deal about losing an anchor? Anchor out enough, you're going to snag something. Where's the tick off factor? I've worked dive boats for years. Fishermen lose anchors all the time, snagging into our wrecks here in the Graveyard of the Atlantic. I'll bet we have 25 anchors in the back shed at Discovery Diving in Beaufort, NC. (Shameless plug.)

Ironworker: I swapped a guy for a fisherman, about 40#, just because how can you have too many anchors? It folds flat so no big deal to stow.

Mainesail: I thank you along with all the others for your tireless curiousity and abilities. Your video of the dragging CQR v. the instant-setting Manson or Rocna was all I needed to see. I've gots to have one. Woo Hoo!

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by osirissail

- - What are you going to do if you lose or break you "only" anchor? Welcome to the real world of cruising.

I think most cruisers keep at least some kind of a kedge. We have a Fortress FX37 with 200 feet of nylon multiplait which, besides serving as kedge and stern anchor, would be a perfectly decent spare anchor, I think. I might not sleep to it, but it would surely do for any emergency purposes until a lost bower could be replaced.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by osirissail

Sorry to "tick you off" but out in the real world of world cruising losing an anchor is not uncommon. Losing an anchor also includes breaking one.

Okay. We sail in different circles. Happens.

Originally Posted by osirissail

- - What are you going to do if you lose or break you "only" anchor? Welcome to the real world of cruising.

I don't think I said I sail with only one anchor. I have three, two of which are 55# Rocna anchors. Stuff happens and on ground tackle redundancy is important.

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by osirissail

- - Just a month ago in Charlotte Amalie a "minimalist" budge cruiser anchored abeam me broke both his anchor and bow roller system when he snagged a sunken mooring chain.

Heh. Having anchored in Careening Cove, I can sympathize. That harbour is one of the craziest I can recall in terms of the potential for mishaps. I understand that broken free cruise ships have more than once caused havoc drifting across the seaplane "runway".

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

I think most cruisers keep at least some kind of a kedge. We have a Fortress FX37 with 200 feet of nylon multiplait which, besides serving as kedge and stern anchor, would be a perfectly decent spare anchor, I think. I might not sleep to it, but it would surely do for any emergency purposes until a lost bower could be replaced.

I have a new FX-23 I'll be using next month after launch. My understanding is similar to yours that it makes a quite good stern/storm anchor, but I also hear that it works best with 15 feet of chain, then to the nylon rode back up to the boat.

I'm going to try the 15 lb. model as a replacement for the 33 lb. Bruce on my 9,000 lb. 33 foot sloop. With no windlass or roller, I think it will be easier on the back, so all it has to do is to be as good as the Bruce to be better, if that makes sense.

[Kettlewell]

Thread drift here...I've used an FX-23 numerous times as a second anchor in a Bahamian moor situation, and therefore it has ended up holding my 38-foot, 22,000 lb. boat all by itself in numerous hard blows. After deploying two of these during Hurricane Bob on our previous catamaran, backing up a mooring we were on, they were both so well dug in that it took half a day to gradually work them back to the surface. Once well dug in nothing will dislodge a Fortress, short of breakage. I have also found that their very sharp flukes can penetrate hard sand bottoms that sometimes defeat more blunt anchors.

[S/V Alchemy]

Good to know. I am eager to test mine in the various grounds around Toronto...thanks, retreating glaciers and riverine silt!

[hpeer]

After careful consideration and much study I think I have found the best compromise between cost and weight.

How can you possibly argue that this won't hold?

Now "Getting it up" might be a problem even a nubile youn'em would have difficulty with.