Anchor Buddy (weight)

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Carduelis

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Lots of people recommend use of a weight on an anchor rode but how exactly do you acquire one and how heavy should it be? I can't recall ever having seen them for sale.

I'd be happy to make or adapt one given the basic material. I suppose I could buy a roll of roofing lead and melt it down, but that sounds a tad expensive.

How did other people get hold of theirs? Anyone got a picture of one?



And BTW - I'm not looking to start another chain Vs rope discussion here!
 
I use plastic coated lifting weights threaded together with stud bar and a large shackle welded on the end . Works ok .
 
Let's hope someone with extensive practical experience comes along to give you thir views. Meantime consider the purpose and practicalities of the device. The object of using a "chum", "angel" or whatever name you choose is to position it on the catenary of the rode to improve the anchor's holding by maintaining a near horizontal pull on the shank. Obviously you don't want it to be more difficult to handle than the bower anchor, so weight is likely to be less than the anchor itself - but I suspect anything under 5kg would have negligible effect. Hpme made examples tend to be sand moulded as a truncated cone with a heavy wire (fencing wire) embedded at the apex for an eye. A strop is used to hanh it on the rode, large enough to allo it to slide easily along it. Some people lower their smaller kedge anchor as a chum, which is probably a good guide to the weight needed.

Lead to make your own is best obtained from offcuts and recycling. A local builder/roofer might save scraps of flashing for you for scrap price Wheel weights used to be a good source, but I don't think they use lead anymore. It could be worth contacting a gun club as they periodically sieve the sand in the butts, reclaiming tons of lead! It's a filthy job so they may only be co-operative if you volunteer to do the digging! If you decide to make your owm, please remember the fumes from molten lead are poisonous and it requires great care in handling. Having said that, you can melt it in an aluminium saucepan either outdoors or with an extractor fan. Another option for a mould is a tin can, although the lead is likely to solder itself to the can.

Rob.
 
This was the last one I saw underwater.

It was just a moulded disc of lead with a loop of chain that was snap shackled around the main rode. The loop of chain was attached to a wire loop that was no doubt inserted in the mould before the lead was poured.

For some applications a rope is needed to control the position of the kellet along the rode.

Melting lead is quite easy, but make sure you take precautions. I once melted some lead in old saucepan and on lifting it off the heat the handle broke. Lucky to escape that one unscathed. :)

Read the posts on the effectiveness and function of kellets before you go to the trouble.

image.jpg1_zpsn9cs9bcs.jpg
 
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Mine is a 14kg roll of roofing lead in a plastic drainpipe with a double L shaped length of heavy welding rod up through the middle to attach a shackle to.
You could also use diving weights or a large balance scales weight as used by street traders to hold down stall covers.

PS 14kg because that is the weight of 10mtrs of 8mm chain.
 
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The other option to consider is using an old anchor as a kellet. Some designs that are out of fashion can be picked up cheaply. The advantage is it will double as a spare/second anchor.

The drawback is that it is bulkier so it is less convenient to stow, deploy and recover. (Avoid CQR's they will bite your fingers,:)) Also the weight in water will be less than an all lead kellet, but anything with two purposes is always great on a boat. In some applications the drag of the anchor (rather than just the weight) can be helpful.
 
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As referred to by several other posters, before spending time and money doing this, be sure of the advantages that having one may give you. Once the wind strength gets to about force 6 it will do nothing for you, almost whatever the weight. At wind speeds below that, for rope rodes it will help to prevent the boat from wandering about the anchorage. There may be a very narrow window of wind speeds when the same may happen with a chain rode, not sure about that one.
 
Never bothered with an anchor chum but I've done quite a bit of casting lead: I used to make dive weights for the club I belonged to at the time. I also made larger weights for use holding shot lines before moving on to using concrete in buckets as easier than messing about with lead. We used to buy lead from the local scrappy: he sold it at the day's rate for the metal. It was usually scraps from roofing and the like, reasonably clean. Melted it in a galvanized bucket over a gas ring and poured it into moulds using a steel ladle. The dive weight moulds were bought in items with a hinge and it was easy to use them. For the larger shot line weight, we used 5 litre oil cans with the top cut off and a piece of chain placed in them for attaching the rope. IIRC we only used to fill the cans half way as they would have been way too heavy filled all the way to the top.
Easy enough to do that sort of casting but (and its a big but) you do need to take some care in setting things up properly. Do it in the open air, even with clean lead all sorts of nasties can be driven off as you melt the stuff. Make sure that whatever you're using as the mould is clean and free from oil or water: contact with either of these with molten lead will lead to explosive boiling which will spatter molten lead all over the place. I didn't get burned myself but did kill a perfectly serviceable Barbour jacket.... Wear eye protection and gloves and keep kids well away. And remember that the casting will retain its heat for a long time.
Have fun.
 
My Anderson 22 uses 5 metres of chain then 30 metres of warp for the bower anchor, an all chain rode would crucify her trim and performance.

I anchor regularly, either for short stops in Chichester Harbour or overnight on holiday at places like Studland, where I have had a few wild nights anchored in gales.

I use a folding grapnel as an angel / chum on the bower warp, despite what some pundits claim this has proven very effective even in gales, ie tucked as far into the shelter of the cliffs at Studland as possible, but there are pretty savage katabatic gusts.

The grapnel angel halfway down the bower warp does well in taking the shock out of waves and keeping the catenary pull low on the bower anchor ( 7.5kg Bruce ).

The advantage is, the grapnel in folded state is compact and user friendly, no pointy or finger nipping parts.

The other real boon is that the grapnel in unfolded anchor mode makes a good kedge, especially in emergency situations on weed covered rock where it can usually penetrate to grab a toe-hold, while a bower plough type anchor might not get through weed.

I would not rely on it for long like this as the design relies on the hinge pins, but it might allow a vital breathing time.

I am happy the grapnel is well worth its weight on board.
 
With a textile rather than a chain rode, I guess a good case can be made for a Kellet-chum thingy. If you use chain I'd submit you'd do far better to put any extra weight into the anchor, where you'd get far more benefit for the extra weight you have to handle.
I have used chain to improve the catenary of a chain/textile rode, with considerable advantage on my boat. The same practice might not work on other vessels with a different shape.
Most people I know seem to use their kedge as a chum.
 
Seajet said:
Well whatever the rode is made of, a grapnel makes a lot more sense to carry around than a lead weight !
Click to expand...

A bit of a throw away statement, what is practical to carry surely depends on the size of the boat.
I agree that folding grapnels are a useful addition, I carry two (about 4 or 5 kg from memory) but for my boat, even together, are an inadiquate lump weight.
 
My rode is 10 metres chain and 100 metres rope. I use a 10 Kg gym weight as an angel. I got it from ALDI or LIDL, can't remember which. As Vyv says it helps to stop the boat wandering round the anchor. It has another virtue in that, when positioned not too far down the rope, it keeps the rope hanging vertically down when the boat drifts across the anchor at the turn of the tide and thus stops it catching on keels, props etc.
 
On my previous boat that had rope / chain set up, I used to lower a couple of sash window weights down the anchor rope with the aid of a snatch block and a secondary rope.
Worked very well and FREE.
You often find them in skips where old windows are being replaced.
As they are usually cast iron, it's a good idea to paint them to prevent rust marks on deck / clothes etc.
 
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LadyInBed said:
A bit of a throw away statement, what is practical to carry surely depends on the size of the boat.
I agree that folding grapnels are a useful addition, I carry two (about 4 or 5 kg from memory) but for my boat, even together, are an inadiquate lump weight.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't a larger grapnel - or a more serious but harder to stow anchor - be more useful to carry than simple weights ?

As you may gather, I hate the idea of carrying around crude lead weights on any size boat !
 
Just thinking out loud here (and ready to be shot down in flames) but is there a way to make an "angel" out of chain itself? To explain, say let out 10m of chain, then loop say another 5 metres, then let out another 10 metres. That way you heavy angel (the 5m loop) half way down.

I guess the first question is how you make the closed part of the loop - a) Strong enough & b) easy to put in and take out quickly?

or

how about using a chain hook on a long line then letting out more chain (a lot) to pull the hook down? eg 10 metre of chain, 5 metres of rope then another 10m of chain?
 
jonrarit,

I see what you're getting at and if one is to carry weight then chain seems a good idea; I think the chain/rope/chain rode would be a problem for windlasses, might as well be all chain - as well as lots of joins to fail ?
 
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