Anchor advice not a wind up or a trolley

[cagey]

Story so far
Sigma 362
I have bad arthritis and a dodgy back and not as young as I think I am
Because of anchor locker design and fore cabin design, windlass idea has been postponed for a few years.
So I need sensible ideas to replace my ancient, rusty, bloody heavy CQR with something more modern and hopefully lighter.
I intend to keep CQR on board for those hairy nights, also the boat is chartered a lot.
Thanks
Keith

 

[JKay]

10 kg delta my vote and counting for Mr Rochna to join in

cheers Joe

 

[roly_voya]

No question, get a fortress or similar alloy anchor with a short length of heavy chain to get it on the bottem, say 10-15m 10mm and then plently of rope. It will sometimes give problems penetrating a very hard sand seabed because of the lack of wt - tends to be more prone to skating but most of the time will go in ok. On mud will be fine. Holding power when set is way better than anything else at that wt, OK won't be as good as a big heavy anchor and chain but as long as you apreciate its limitation should be fine. The important thing is that you are not doing damage to yourself handling it so you get to keep sailing. For charter I might be tempted to stick it in the boot and leave them the CQR. As a rule of thumb hoding power is relative to the area of the flukes and penitrating power is down to wt and design (does the wt come on the tip & piont it downwards!) Only down side is the cost a lot

 

[JKay]

agree subject to bottom.I have seen a mate use the smallest Fortress I have ever seen in the Wash on a 26 footer(mobo)
and it set first time and held thro a tide change
weight for weight(with a softish bottom)the best

cheers Joe

 

[simonfraser]

make sure it will fit a future windlass e.g. calibrated chain is needed for this.

 

[Pye_End]

Depends on budget - if you have the funds then a Spade/Rocna etc. - if not then a Delta.

 

[vyv_cox]

A Fortress, or any other Danforth-type anchor, holds extremely well in the right sort of bottom, preferably one with a bit of mud in it, provided that the direction of pull remains constant. What they don't like is reversal of the pull direction, when they can be reluctant or impossible to re-bed. One reason, that is inevitable with this design, is that the chain can be dragged between the stock and flukes on the turn, effectively blocking any re-bed attempt. However, even if that doesn't happen they can still drag very readily when the wind or tide turn.

For your boat I would think that 15 kg is the absolute minimum weight for overnight anchoring. One of the modern designs (I'm not brave enough to name one here) should be fine.

 

[30boat]

I would say that any of the modern generation anchors would do.They've all been extensively tested in the mags .I think that pretty much everybody accepts that their holding is in general very good as are the rebeding carachteristics.
Mind you I had a Rocna drag once,but it was my fault,not enough scope,so the usual methods and common sense still apply.

 

[TiggerToo]

... and it is Rocna for me....

 

[Airassmith]

>Mind you I had a Rocna drag once,but it was my fault,not enough scope,so the usual methods and common >sense still apply.

Me too. Not sure what the reason was, possibly smooth rock under a thin layer of mud. Not a nice situation but escaped unscathed apart from an earfull from the wife.
Dave

 

[saltwater_gypsy]

On the merits of Fortress, I have a second-hand one as a kedge but the mud plates are missing.Do they make much difference to the general performance?

 

[Tidewaiter2]

My 2p worth : 10kg Delta, equiv Fortress, equiv Spade in order of pref plus 10m 6-8mm chain and one of those anchor rodes with last 10m leadfilled.
That ought to give a reasonable cantenary and holding in most ground and reasonable weather without all the wieght being concentrated just in the anchor when it's on deck and has to be handled about.

 

[PetiteFleur]

I've got a Fortress as a kedge anchor, but big enough as a main anchor, and been very impressed with it, particularly in mud. Nice and light to handle, much better than the 35lb Plough anchor which is the main anchor. Another choice would be the Spade which always gets good reports.

 

[Talbot]

Rocna's and Delta's are very good anchors, but are not going to see a significant weight saving for somebody with a bad back wanting to reduce the weight he has to haul. The fortress is great but expensive, the guardian is a cheaper version from same stable, so quality not so good. Both are aluminum so very light. However, there have been some cases in mud, that these anchors set so well that they need considerable force to break them out, so you might have to shorten down, secure the anchor and then use the engine to break it out of the mud.

or get an electric windlass - and wonder why you didnt years ago!

 

[FrancisRutter]

Get one of those pivoting self launching bow fittings which the anchor can nest in and then use an electric windlass. It can all be done then without having to actually handle the anchor at all. I have found it very worth while.