Rocna anchors; where are they made?

[sailjumanji]

My Lewmar Delta dragged horribly - to the point that I could never trust it. In 2007. I purchased a Rocna. At that time, they were made in Canada (I think), and also very expensive (price has since come down a lot.) But I wanted something I could trust. And after over ten years of use, I count it among the best purchases every made for the boat.

Re customer service, when the anchor was just a few months old, it started flaking off the galvanizing in a couple of small areas. I sent Rocna a picture. They said they had about a dozen anchors that exhibited the problem, and would replace the anchor. But they also offered me the option of using the anchor for six months or so, and if I wasn't happy with it, they would just refund my money, or if I was happy with it, they would replace with a new anchor. I used it, I liked it, I called them six months later and they arranged a local West Marine to do a swap for me. I thought that was pretty good customer service.

[mitiempo]

[QUOTE=Kenomac;2334109]

Originally Posted by AZ_Zoner

An anchor which bends easily in light winds when stuck is made of crap steel or the result of poor design. Our anchor has been held fast in rock a number of times when I thought we'd have difficulty retrieving it. When light to moderate winds kicked up, it never bent. We use an Ultra anchor made from stainless steel.

Just go back to Rocna 101 and find out why their anchors were recalled. Crap Chinese steel causing bent shanks. Here we go again.

Different ownership, different factory, different quality.

[sailjumanji]

Originally Posted by Pete7

No I disagree

When I replaced my 10kg Delta with a 10kg Rocna, I took the following photo. The difference in shanks was easy to see, the Delta was much stronger.

However, the higher holding strength was the reason for the change without increasing the weight, because at 10kg its a one handed lift to launch. Note the difference in blade area too.

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Pete, thanks for those pictures and side-by-side comparison. I finally realize why my Lewmar Delta held like crap. Lewmar put all of the thickness and weight in the shaft, and less in the blade. It probably always wanted to land on the sea bottom shank-down, and was most stable laying on its side!

I love my Rocna. Have been in some strong storms and never dragged. One time we went ashore and watched a storm blow thru with 30 knots winds. Not horribly strong wind, but it came from different directions during the event and we watched helplessly from the shore as the boat did a full 360 deg swing and ended up pointing and pulling 180 deg off from direction it started. IF the anchor reset, it did it in its own length.

While I am not a fan of the copy-cat Manson, I do think Mantus makes a really nice product. Have one of their dinghy anchors, and a chain hook. (And yes I am aware of the PS tests, and luckily my experience doesn't match theirs, and my chain hook is right-sized for my chain.) Owner feedback on them has been good as well, customer service from my own experience excellent, and testing shows they hold well.

[downunder]

Originally Posted by sailjumanji

Pete, thanks for those pictures and side-by-side comparison. I finally realize why my Lewmar Delta held like crap. Lewmar put all of the thickness and weight in the shaft, and less in the blade. It probably always wanted to land on the sea bottom shank-down, and was most stable laying on its side!

I love my Rocna. Have been in some strong storms and never dragged. One time we went ashore and watched a storm blow thru with 30 knots winds. Not horribly strong wind, but it came from different directions during the event and we watched helplessly from the shore as the boat did a full 360 deg swing and ended up pointing and pulling 180 deg off from direction it started. IF the anchor reset, it did it in its own length.

While I am not a fan of the copy-cat Manson, I do think Mantus makes a really nice product. Have one of their dinghy anchors, and a chain hook. (And yes I am aware of the PS tests, and luckily my experience doesn't match theirs, and my chain hook is right-sized for my chain.) Owner feedback on them has been good as well, customer service from my own experience excellent, and testing shows they hold well.

Not sure of that (copy cat). There was another european anchor as well as the super sarca that used roll bars earlier than Rocna.

The old anchor war threads will be definitive but ROCNA's original selling point of difference was they were using bisalloy in the shanks along with Manson and anchorright in Australia. When they moved construction from NZ to China they went to a lower tensile strength shank and started bending them. Whilst they have since moved to a higher tensile strength steel in the shanks it is certainly not the bisalloy strength they originally pushed.

The numbers (tensile strength) will be in those old threads.

Cheers

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Agreed, but the shank difference was substantial, something like twice the thickness and half the depth. Even taking into account the different steels that is a huge difference.

As I said, the reason for the change was to increase the holding power but not the weight or size as it lives in the anchor locker when not on the sea bed.

I wouldn't be worried if an anchor bent, I would if it snapped.

Pete

Couldn't agree more

[AiniA]

Originally Posted by S/V Alchemy

Bruce, did you get a tour of his boat? It looks amazing from the pictures.

It is the finest serious cruising boat I have ever seen. He offered to build one for me - but after hearing about the 20,000 hours of skilled labour required, not to mention the material cost - I thought not. We met Peter and his significant other in Cape Town after they had come from the Falklands. Along the way they were knocked down 180° and the only damage was a broken shackle. They were on their way to Greenland (he hates warm weather) but were not going to be able to get back down to South Africa to carry on with their circumnavigation south of the Capes.

He also had the prototype of the Vulcan onboard; he had had it made in South Africa at a university.

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by TheThunderbird

Manson is poorly considered, as a copy derived from Rocna, with a questionable (to someone..) welded doubled sheet.
.

Poorly considered by who.....Kinda like 4 out of 5 dentists chose Crest tooth paste...

I've had two Manson Supreme anchors a 45lb and now 100lb.
I've also never met a cruiser not happy with his Manson.

[BambooSailor]

Question for OP: how big is your anchor?

[TheThunderbird]

Originally Posted by SV THIRD DAY

Poorly considered by who.....Kinda like 4 out of 5 dentists chose Crest tooth paste...

I've had two Manson Supreme anchors a 45lb and now 100lb.
I've also never met a cruiser not happy with his Manson.

Don't ask me ! :-)

I hinted at the reason for criticism, two welded plates instead of a thicker one.

I ordered myself 100lb of Manson supreme (rocna like).

No doubt, here on CF it is among the least acclaimed new-G anchors....

Rocna ultra excel sarca fortess rocna vulcan spade... blabla.

I didnt mind... sure, l wanted to downgrade my CQRs to spare service.

[TheThunderbird]

Originally Posted by AiniA

It is the finest serious cruising boat I have ever seen. He offered to build one for me - but after hearing about the 20,000 hours of skilled labour required, not to mention the material cost - I thought not. We met Peter and his significant other in Cape Town after they had come from the Falklands. Along the way they were knocked down 180° and the only damage was a broken shackle. They were on their way to Greenland (he hates warm weather) but were not going to be able to get back down to South Africa to carry on with their circumnavigation south of the Capes.

He also had the prototype of the Vulcan onboard; he had had it made in South Africa at a university.

Can you please hint at size, displacement and rigging ?

20,000h make for 7-800,000$ just for assembling :-)

Thanks

[Palarran]

Originally Posted by sailjumanji

My Lewmar Delta dragged horribly - to the point that I could never trust it. In 2007. I purchased a Rocna. At that time, they were made in Canada (I think), and also very expensive (price has since come down a lot.) But I wanted something I could trust. And after over ten years of use, I count it among the best purchases every made for the boat.

+1 exactly

I'm only 5 years into my Rocna ownership but it's changed my cruising completely. Confidence in the anchor holding provides a lot of freedom for my mind.

Worst wind - 40 knots continuous, 50 knot gusts, in 100' of water with 3.5x1 scope. Didn't move at all.

[AZ_Zoner]

Just a quick follow up on our Vulcan, Rocna issued a credit to Budget Marine. They are delivering a new old style Rocna to us on Wednesday! Very happy with the service! Both from Rocna and Eric with Budget Marine.

Craig

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by sailjumanji

My Lewmar Delta dragged horribly - to the point that I could never trust it. In 2007. I purchased a Rocna. At that time, they were made in Canada (I think), and also very expensive (price has since come down a lot.) But I wanted something I could trust. And after over ten years of use, I count it among the best purchases every made for the boat.

What size Rocna do you have and what size Delta did you have?

[AiniA]

Originally Posted by TheThunderbird

Can you please hint at size, displacement and rigging ?
Sorry
20,000h make for 7-800,000$ just f,r assembling :-)

Thanks

Sorry, should have provided the link below. I don't think that there is another cruising boat like this. And it was 22.000 hours - at English prices. Most of Kiwi Roa's life has been spent at high latitudes including wintering numerous times in the Falklands and Patagonia.

About “Kiwi Roa�

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by bvander

What you dont see in the picture is that the shank of the rocna is made with HSS, where as the delta is not. Its like chain, 3/8 g30 chain looks bigger than g40 5/16 chain and yet the 5/16 g40 has higher working load.

Also shape of blade has a lot to do with holding power, not just area.

The effects of thickness are different when dealing with bending than for straight line tension or compression so the comparison to anchor chain is incorrect.

Stiffness and the load at yield for bending go as the 2nd power of thickness. Let's assume that the Rocna uses really high strength steel, say 65ksi. then the Delta shank would need to be 34% thicker [(65/36)^1/2] to have the same bending strength.

More realistically the Rocna uses 42 or 50ksi steel for economic reasons. Which means the Delta would have to be 8% or 18% thicker to be equal in bending strength.

Using MicroSoft Paint, the Delta shank is 10 or 11 pixels wide and the Rocna is 5 or 6 wide. To be conservative let's assume the Delta shank is 1.67 times the thickness of the Rocna (10/6). Based on this the Rocna shank would have to use 100ksi steel to be as strong as the Delta shank.

So it looks like the Rocna has the advantage in blade area and by inferrence holding strength, but the Delta is less likely to suffer damage if the blade is wedged into something solid and experiences a wind shift that would bend the shank.