anchor choice

[prv]

That is why I went to Ardfern as they were registered as the closest supplier of spade anchors.

I bought mine direct from the website; in practice it's handled by Blue Water Supplies in Jersey. They sent it by ordinary registered post, simply wrapped in bubble-wrap and tape - after all, it's a big lump of steel, it's not as if it's going to get damaged. But this did mean that it was obviously an anchor, as opposed to an anonymous cardboard box, and I don't think the postman who lugged it to my door was very impressed at the concept of sending boat-anchors through the post

Pete

 

[JumbleDuck]

I bought mine direct from the website; in practice it's handled by Blue Water Supplies in Jersey. They sent it by ordinary registered post, simply wrapped in bubble-wrap and tape - after all, it's a big lump of steel, it's not as if it's going to get damaged. But this did mean that it was obviously an anchor, as opposed to an anonymous cardboard box, and I don't think the postman who lugged it to my door was very impressed at the concept of sending boat-anchors through the post

When my father gave up sailing he gave me all his boat related stuff to sell, which I did, though eBay. This included about half a dozen anchors. The Stokes Pattern one was particularly satisfying to send, but the staff at my local post office still ask me when I will be posting more anchors, five years on. Mind you, I once posted a Triumph Herald door ... with the quarterlight removed it was, just, under the size limit for parcel post.

 

[KellysEye]

>We have an old and very rusted CQR. At 25lb for a Sadler 32 it may be a bit on the big side.

As said have it regalvanised and the anchor should be one size bigger than recommended for the boat.

 

[prv]

the staff at my local post office still ask me when I will be posting more anchors, five years on.

What did you used to do, just hang a luggage tag from the shackle with the address on?

Pete

 

[JumbleDuck]

What did you used to do, just hang a luggage tag from the shackle with the address on?

Almost. Bit of cardboard over the top of the flukes, loads of parcel tape to hold it in place, bingo.

 

[J Neeves]

That's what happens in Oz, luggage label, packing round the toe. But we might have a 20kg limit (not sure). But the delivery postmen (in our case a rather slight young lady) are not quite so keen. The biggest problem for the PO is that they do not stack - most parcels are, unsurprisingly, roughly cubic and its very difficult to get a cubic anchor to set or sit neatly on the bow roller.

In fact unless it is very well packed its easier to manhandle the bare anchor, if the packing round the shanks slips its less easy to grip.

Jonathan

 

[rwoofer]

I had a spade delivered by post. Was quick and efficient. They cabled tied the two pieces to a rectangular piece of play, which made it slightly easier to handle.

Even though I don't have the right size boat anymore, I still keep the Spade for when I might upgrade again. Much better than the CQR and Delta I had before. Currently have a little 6kg Rocna which seems to perform well for a small anchor. Generally I found most small anchors worse than useless, so it bodes well for the bigger sizes.

 

[Sadlermike]

I used a 35lb CQR on my Sadler 32 and dragged at least once per year for some ten years. I replaced this with a Rocna 10 which was the size recommended by Rocna and which fitted into the anchor well. I sat out several F9s but it dragged in a gale on the change of tide in Baltimore. This was probably my fault as I was on a very short scope (X3) owing to the crowded anchorage. I replaced it with a Rocna 15 and have not dragged in the subsequent four years. I carry the anchor on the bow roller but it just fits into the anchor well along with 60 metres of chain when sailing offshore. I anchor more than 200 nights per year.

 

[BelleSerene]

Speaking of having anchors delivered, I had my 20kg Rocna delivered from New Zealand some seven years ago, before they had a dealer over here. One day a pallet arrived on my driveway with some paperwork attached. The box stood taller than me, and some 1m square. If that was an anchor, I thought, you could hold a liner with it.

It turned out that it wasn't. It was a cryogenic refrigerator destined for some biological laboratory. God knows what the gatekeeper at the biotech lab thought when he signed for an anchor.

A call to UPS fixed it: they promised to pick up the pallet the next day and bring me my anchor. Which they did.