roaringgirl
Well-known member
After much deliberating, I decided to replace our 25kg Rocna. It has served us well and never dragged in half a circumnavigation, the biggest test being Fatu Hiva anchored at 3:1 (all the chain!) and 55kt gusts for several days.
My reasons for replacing were:
1. On some of our passages depending on conditions, the Rocna gets slammed on the bow. Hard enough to bend the 10mm bolts I use as pins to keep it still. The solution is to lift it off the bow and stow it in the locker, however 25kg is nearly half my body weight and although I can lift it, it is very unwieldy and difficult to manoeuvre into the locker, especially still attached to the chain. Therefore I wanted something that holds just as well, but is lighter...
2. In some areas when I have pulled up the Rocna, it has brought a large chunk of soil with it, in the roll bar. Clearly that would impede re-setting if the tide or wind shifted, so I wanted something without a roll-bar.
When I was having some windlass problems, I used our spare anchor (Fortress with only 10m of chain plus 60m of rode) because I can retrieve it by hand. This got me thinking that there's really no merit in weight for weight's sake in a modern anchor, so why not have a bower made of aluminium? I eventually decided on an aluminium alloy Excel, the recommended size for my boat is the #5. In mild steel that's around 25kg, in alu it's 12kg.
It is obviously much easier to mount and demount on the bow, and the lack of roll-bar means it takes up less space. This weekend we headed out of Wellington with a buddy boat, across the Cook Strait and anchored in the Marlborough sounds.
Coincidentally, our friends have a 25kg Rocna, so a back to back comparison was possible. When they dropped the Rocna, they dragged it quite a long way and then lifted it up for a second go, before it finally bit. In 10m of water, they put out 80m of chain. When I dropped the Excel, I had to give it a kick to get it off the bow, presumably due to lack of weight, it set immediately. I have it some time to settle before driving back on it at gradually increasing revs up to 2500 - we have a flip-flop prop so it should give as much thrust in reverse as fwd. In fwd 2500 will push us (12T, long keel, skeg) along at hull speed. The power-setting produced no movement at all from the anchor and with each increase the boat pushed back and then bounced forwards as the catenary was reduced. I let out 40m of chain and snubbed it.
Both anchors held over 2 nights with some gusts up to 30 kts. I slept like a baby. When we came to leave, the Rocna came up easily on the windlass, when I tried to lift the Excel, I motored forward as I took up the chain, until it was vertical, then I had to tie it off and wait for a good few minutes while the anchor slowly worked its way free. It came up with a big cold of mud on it, but with no roll-bar to jam on, I have no concerns about re-setting.
So, it's early days, but so far, the Excel seems to be a really excellent piece of kit and has achieved what I wanted, and might even offer better holding than our old Rocna. Apart from the price, I haven't yet found any downsides to the change.
My reasons for replacing were:
1. On some of our passages depending on conditions, the Rocna gets slammed on the bow. Hard enough to bend the 10mm bolts I use as pins to keep it still. The solution is to lift it off the bow and stow it in the locker, however 25kg is nearly half my body weight and although I can lift it, it is very unwieldy and difficult to manoeuvre into the locker, especially still attached to the chain. Therefore I wanted something that holds just as well, but is lighter...
2. In some areas when I have pulled up the Rocna, it has brought a large chunk of soil with it, in the roll bar. Clearly that would impede re-setting if the tide or wind shifted, so I wanted something without a roll-bar.
When I was having some windlass problems, I used our spare anchor (Fortress with only 10m of chain plus 60m of rode) because I can retrieve it by hand. This got me thinking that there's really no merit in weight for weight's sake in a modern anchor, so why not have a bower made of aluminium? I eventually decided on an aluminium alloy Excel, the recommended size for my boat is the #5. In mild steel that's around 25kg, in alu it's 12kg.
It is obviously much easier to mount and demount on the bow, and the lack of roll-bar means it takes up less space. This weekend we headed out of Wellington with a buddy boat, across the Cook Strait and anchored in the Marlborough sounds.
Coincidentally, our friends have a 25kg Rocna, so a back to back comparison was possible. When they dropped the Rocna, they dragged it quite a long way and then lifted it up for a second go, before it finally bit. In 10m of water, they put out 80m of chain. When I dropped the Excel, I had to give it a kick to get it off the bow, presumably due to lack of weight, it set immediately. I have it some time to settle before driving back on it at gradually increasing revs up to 2500 - we have a flip-flop prop so it should give as much thrust in reverse as fwd. In fwd 2500 will push us (12T, long keel, skeg) along at hull speed. The power-setting produced no movement at all from the anchor and with each increase the boat pushed back and then bounced forwards as the catenary was reduced. I let out 40m of chain and snubbed it.
Both anchors held over 2 nights with some gusts up to 30 kts. I slept like a baby. When we came to leave, the Rocna came up easily on the windlass, when I tried to lift the Excel, I motored forward as I took up the chain, until it was vertical, then I had to tie it off and wait for a good few minutes while the anchor slowly worked its way free. It came up with a big cold of mud on it, but with no roll-bar to jam on, I have no concerns about re-setting.
So, it's early days, but so far, the Excel seems to be a really excellent piece of kit and has achieved what I wanted, and might even offer better holding than our old Rocna. Apart from the price, I haven't yet found any downsides to the change.
