Any real world problems with a genuine Bruce?

DennisF

DennisF

Well-Known Member
Joined
16 Dec 2011
Messages
273
Visit site
Hi all,

I have a 31ft Westerly Berwick with a 10kg genuine Bruce anchor and 8mm chain. I've never had a problem getting it to set, but so far all the anchoring has been for a few hours in quite benign conditions. Next year may call for more prolonged anchoring as I'm moving the boat from West Wales to the East Coast.

The manufacturers guide says it is about the right size for the boat, but you read lots of articles online about needing to 'oversize' and problems in getting them to set well. However, as a lot of these 'tests' are sponsored by makers of the newer anchor designs I'm always a little sceptical.

So, have any of you found genuine Bruce anchors to be a problem in real life, or do you sleep soundly on them?
 
I've never had the chance to use a genuine Bruce, I'm far too young, and feel unable to comment - except to say I see a lot of them, not looking unnecessarily large not the boats looking stupidly small - by definition these are old anchors - consequently given that the owners must be intelligent (as they own boats, many of them nice) then the anchors must work or the owners would have dumped them for something else.

I'd stick with what you've got until you prove to yourself that a change is needed.

But its a good time for an anchor thread - lots of goodwill about :)

Jonathan
 
I have used them extensively on the West Coast of Scotland and Firth of Clyde and rate the Bruce as good anchor. In one bay I had to winch the anchor out, or rather pull the bow down with a primary winch. The anchor simply would not come out of the mud. I was pretty sure it had not fouled as the bay is clean. Sitting in the cockpit and pondering the bow popped back up and I recovered the anchor as normal. As the anchor came to surface there was no sight of the Bruce, just a massive clay ball. The anchorage is called Rubh NA Crouch, east side of Loch Ridden, just at the entrance, bottom is a firm clay, which is exactly what this type of anchor was designed for. However, in many other areas and bottom types I found it held well.
 
DennisF said:
Hi all,

I have a 31ft Westerly Berwick with a 10kg genuine Bruce anchor and 8mm chain. I've never had a problem getting it to set, but so far all the anchoring has been for a few hours in quite benign conditions. Next year may call for more prolonged anchoring as I'm moving the boat from West Wales to the East Coast.

The manufacturers guide says it is about the right size for the boat, but you read lots of articles online about needing to 'oversize' and problems in getting them to set well. However, as a lot of these 'tests' are sponsored by makers of the newer anchor designs I'm always a little sceptical.

So, have any of you found genuine Bruce anchors to be a problem in real life, or do you sleep soundly on them?
Click to expand...
I have used one for some 30 yrs the same 10kg in Belgium, with 20m x 8mm chain + 30m of 18mm anchorplait, first on a Co32 then my present 37 ft IOR cruiser / racer . the only time i have had a problem is in pipeweed it just wont penetrate this foreign import.
I have now been using a Fortress FX 16 + more chain due to venturing down channel more often.
we do have a brand new & unused gen CQR 35Lb stowed under a Q/ berth "just in case"
 
DennisF: I used a 15kg Bruce for a few years on 32-footer on the W Coast (Scotland to Brittany), until replaced by a new-fangled thing. I was comfortable with it in anything but thick weed, its notorious weak spot.

How good it will be for you depends to some extent where you'll be on the E Coast. Bruces are excellent in mud, and much of the E coast is muddy. If you see plenty of your new neighbours wearing Bruces, one will probably be fine for you.
 
My 'new' yacht came with a 35lb Bruce. It was the miracle anchor of the '70's, devised for securing North Sea oil rigs, and in the boat show demos of the time set impressively well in a basin of fine dry sand.

In the real world though it isn't the easiest, though after a couple of years now I think I have the measure of it. As others say, its good on clay and sand, but then most anchors are. But it's not the best at penetrating weed or gripping a stoney bottom.

The truth is, it isn't the design of the anchor that matters so much as how you use it. Always think in terms of laying out the chain along the sea bed rather than just dumping it after the anchor, and when you have enough laid out, pull back hard on the engine to make sure the anchor has a good hold. I still often have to drop it a couple of times before being happy it is secure.
 
Thanks all. It is reassuring to see that others have been happy with this type and size. Only had this boat 2 years but as I say I've never had a problem getting it to set in West Wales, which is usually sandy or muddy. I'll try and get an overnight anchor in somewhere muddy next season before I set off, to improve confidence before I go.
 
I have the same set up on a similar boat.

It let me down badly only once, in many, many years. After a long overnight passage I found it would not set convincingly and I decided to let it lay for a few moments, on a short'ish scope, and then veer more chain. This is a good wheeze that often works well - but only if you avoid falling asleep. So in truth it was probably me that let the anchor down.

A couple of years ago it was looking pretty rusty and I decided to buy a new offering. Once I disregarded the stupidly expensive ones, the ones with slots in the shank and the ones that come apart with a flick of the wrist there were about 3 realistic alternatives. All seem to have disappointed in one test or another. In the end I had the Bruce re-galvanized.

PS

I sighted that doyen of all things maritime, Tom Cunliffe, over the summer and noticed he has a Bruce on the bow.
 
Last edited:
I used a genuine 15kg one for five years on a Trapper 500 in the Adriatic. As noted, I found it excellent in soft substrate such as my local Italian lagoons but found problems crossing to Croatia where I met with hard sand and it was particularly bad with any weed, even a light covering, when I just couldn't get it to set.

I don't want to start a new generation anchor argument but was very happy to change to a similar-sized Rocna, with which I have never had a problem in all conditions, unlike the Bruce.
 
I have a 36ft moderately heavy ketch, sailing on the West Coast of Scotland. She has a 20kg genuine Bruce, with 10mm chain. I make every effort not to anchor in weed, (Fishfinder, eyeballs etc), but in the usual West Coast sand or mud, I have found it excellent. Beware of anchoring off piste, the Bruce can pick up a boulder, and clutch it to its bosom. Moral, don't anchor in big round boulders. I have every confidence in my anchor gear. I have to, as the boat is often left at anchor for long periods. I would think that in East Coast mud, you will be fine.
 
NormanS said:
I have a 36ft moderately heavy ketch, sailing on the West Coast of Scotland. She has a 20kg genuine Bruce, with 10mm chain. I make every effort not to anchor in weed, (Fishfinder, eyeballs etc), but in the usual West Coast sand or mud, I have found it excellent. Beware of anchoring off piste, the Bruce can pick up a boulder, and clutch it to its bosom. Moral, don't anchor in big round boulders. I have every confidence in my anchor gear. I have to, as the boat is often left at anchor for long periods. I would think that in East Coast mud, you will be fine.
Click to expand...
The best holding ever, is in The Pyefleet. If an enterprising person could get in tubes rather the size of Araldite, he would make a fortune. BUT its a nasty place & would never ever recommend anybody to anchor there
 
I have a Halmatic 30 with a 15kg genuine Bruce and 8mm chain. I don't anchor that much but when I do it never gives me any worries. I have a couple of times anchored with a friend 28ft alongside. On one occasion we were in the Alde, pretty fast flow, and there for two nights. I had a problem then, getting the anchor up again. Fortunately I have an electric windlass hence using my tackle rather than theirs. It obviously had no difficulty with the tide changes, just dug itself in deeped.
 
You'll be comforted to hear that almost all the boats on the East coast that I've ever seen seem to be fitted with Bruce anchors.
There must be a reason for that.

Certainly ours has one, it came with the boat and we've never so far had a problem on the mud and sand of the lower Trent, Wells next the Sea or the Wash. You'll be fine.
 
Our late company founder used to marvel at the structural strength of a genuine Bruce. As with any anchor, you might hear about its performance strengths and weaknesses, but I don't recall its structural strength ever being in doubt.
 
Last edited:
Trundlebug said:
You'll be comforted to hear that almost all the boats on the East coast that I've ever seen seem to be fitted with Bruce anchors.
There must be a reason for that..
Click to expand...

Indeed but I'm not sure what the reason is

Now to be fair, the Bruce is not a bad anchor but it does sometimes suffer from the flukes getting clogged up. I've had this happen twice in the Yokesfleet where balls of muddy clay have stuck in the flukes and caused the anchor to fail to reset (once when the tide turned and we dragged from one side of the creek to the other, on the other occasion when trying to reset the anchor having decided we'd anchored a bit too close to the bank and we couldn't get it to reset)

I've also had trouble getting the Bruce to set a couple of times - once in particular off Wells bar when the damn thing just wouldn't get a grip

The CQR on the previous boat never once failed to instantly set in the East Coast mud and never dragged so much as an inch.

The Bruce does have the significant advantage of sitting nicely on bow rollers which is not to be dismissed lightly but purely from empirical personal experience it wouldn't be my preferential choice

I'm happily swapping the existing Bruce on the new boat for the CQR that's on the current owners replacement yacht. I'll probably invest in a new generation anchor anyway in due course
 
I had a Bruce. No probs on sand or mud.

Poor in weed and dangerous on stones, it will cup rocks and not discard them. The second time this happened to me at the Farne Islands I dragged onto very dodgy situation in the night. The RNLI came out and saved my bacon.

I bought a new generation anchor and boat-jumbled the Bruce. Since my pal was an RNLI manager it cost me a hellish donation.
 
EdWingfield said:
I had a Bruce. No probs on sand or mud.

Poor in weed and dangerous on stones, it will cup rocks and not discard them. The second time this happened to me at the Farne Islands I dragged onto very dodgy situation in the night. The RNLI came out and saved my bacon.

I bought a new generation anchor and boat-jumbled the Bruce. Since my pal was an RNLI manager it cost me a hellish donation.
Click to expand...

Donated in the Pub ???
 
I can only echo the others - used one on the west coast of Scotland and in the Baltic - great in mud, struggles with hard sand and awful in weed or on stoney bottoms, but few anchorages have that on the East Coast. I had a Delta as well, and found that better all round.
 
richardsn9 said:
I can only echo the others - used one on the west coast of Scotland and in the Baltic - great in mud, struggles with hard sand and awful in weed or on stoney bottoms, but few anchorages have that on the East Coast. I had a Delta as well, and found that better all round.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's more the trip to the East Coast (Scillies and then along the South Coast) that was worrying me rather than the East Coast itself. I'll have a Danforth as a backup, and there is the potential of borrowing a CQR from a mate as well if needed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top