Danforth advice

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WLane

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I may be a newbie, but I can tell that anchor chat is a well ploughed seabed of a topic on here, with many lumps of unexploded ordanance dredged up from time to time. Given that, I would like some quite specific advice on Danforth's please.

For various reasons I would like to keep one on board as a kedge/alternative to the 9kg plastimo cqr copy I inherited. I will chop the cqr for a next gen type when money is less tight. My boat is 27' and is 3.5tonnes and I have just bought 30m of 8mm chain.

The questions are; what brand to go for and what size?

Original Danforth's are rare but seem to perform much better at grabbing than the copies, having watched sv panope's tests on YouTube. I don't want to buy a dud.

1) Has anyone had a good experience with a particular brand that is readily available in the UK please?

I also don't want to go oversized, both for weight and the ease of removal if it becomes mud bound.

2) What is the minimum size I can get away with when using it as a primary anchor if the seabed is right (sand or sandy mud)

Thanks in advance
 
A fortress/Dan forth are close variations on a theme. The fortress is widely available, significantly lighter for a given area, and probably more £. But at your size it's not colossal expense anyway.

For a kedge or spare the fortress is ideal. If you really want a spare you need to consider whether you go full size for the yacht. It's nice to have it so in case you end up somewhere gnarly or where the primary may not hold.

We have a full size fortress, we have used it a few times, the worst thing about it is heaving it from the mud. But we now have the technique better...patience is the key and use the movement of the boat rather than your biceps!
 
Thanks both. My main two concerns with the fortress are the cost (it would go most of the way towards a top of the range next gen primary anchor for what is mostly going to be an occasional kedge) and I suppose I'm a bit worried that I might knacker it by bending something if it gets stuck, what with it being ali
 
AngusMcDoon said:
If money's a bit tight to replace the main anchor then a Fortress is going to be equally too expensive. A FX11 is £230 at Jimmy Green.
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Exactly. Force 4 do a galv 10kg Danforth copy for £55. Just concerned it might be rubbish.

I'm aware you get what you pay for, but I suppose what with metal prices the way they are, something aluminium or SS the metal itself is a much bigger chunk of the cost of it.
 
A Danforth copy in hard mud once held my boat plus another boat (that had dragged alongside and was in danger of going ashore). Only snag is when the wind faded and I tried to get it up and completely failed. Took a club workboat with very powerful engine in the end to break it out. Came up with bent shank, but boy did it hold. It was also good in sand. Rubbish on shingle or rock though. I carried a bigger Fisherman for that.
 
It seems to me OP should be looking out for second hand market for a danforth. It will need a bit (10m) of chain of course and a rope rode. Danforth can be very good in sand and mud. ol'will
 
William_H said:
It seems to me OP should be looking out for second hand market for a danforth. It will need a bit (10m) of chain of course and a rope rode. Danforth can be very good in sand and mud. ol'will
Click to expand...
Thank you. Have been scouring eBay and online boat jumbles for proper Danforth's and they occasionally come up, but always hours away and too heavy to post.

Glad to hear the copy held. For £50 it might be worth a go. If not I might just have to wait for boat jumble season.
 
I'd never paid much attention to Danforths, the genuine device, until we moved to Australia - 25 years ago. I've never knowingly seen one in Australia and my only experience has been seeing them on racks in West Marine (one of their big stores outside NY to which I took a bike ride) and in Japan (another chandler). I have never understood that, given we all (without exception) advise buy a genuine model, we all find the concept of the Danforth something positive (even if few of us have ever actually seen one let alone used one) and we all suggest a Fortress as an option - why it is Danforth are not freely available in the UK or Australia. They have all the good will, they are available in Japan - what is wrong with the UK and Oz?

But I lie - I did use a genuine one once - it worked exactly as it said on the box - but one 'experience' is statistically flawed.

The fear of using an 'ALUMINIUM' (people shudder) anchor is the fear of bending. It is quite possible to bend most anchors (especially if you treat them with contempt) but find me a recent complaint of a Fortress bending.....?.... which may be because we all carry a Fortress but few actually use one.

Strangely if you go to America you will see them on bow rollers (looking somewhat ungainly) but they are carried and used as a primary.

We carry a FX 16 which we use if we anchor in a 'V' and we carry a FX 37 which we use if we anchor in soupy mud (as nothing else really works). We have never had an issue with them, they set well, are easy to deploy (they are so light). They can be difficult to retrieve (they set so well) and I think if you are impatient they might bend, see RJJ's post above.

But we would never, ever, carry a genuine Danforth, far too heavy - a Fortress is the answer ----- for us.

A FX 11 seems a reasonable suggestion.

But it would be more sensible that instead of looking at a 'Danforth' it would be better if the OP advised what he is going to use as his primary. It will have strengths and weaknesses - no anchor is perfect and his idea of carting around a heavy Danforth makes no sense, at all, to me. 30m of 8mm chain also lacks any sense - its heavy and well over strength. Retreiving 30m of 8mm chain plus a monster Danforth (on a 27' yacht) will be hard work (but will save on gym membership).

On money - if you buy a FX 11 at Stg230 - when you upgrade your yacht you can take the Fortress with you.. Over 10 years it will cost you Stg2 per month - that is not expensive.

To the OP - go back to the beginning. Tell us where you sail, do you have a windlass, post a picture of your bow and the locker in which you will store all the ground tackle - and we will then have the background to offer you sensible advice. Without more information all our recommendations are likely to be wrong and confusing.

Take care, stay safe

Jonathan
 
WLane said:
Thank you. Have been scouring eBay and online boat jumbles for proper Danforth's and they occasionally come up, but always hours away and too heavy to post.
Click to expand...

Shouldn't be too bad to send by courier. I sent a 10kg anchor by Hermes to the Ooter Hebrides earlier this year and it wasn't too much. It's less than a tenner for up to 15kg with parcel shop drop-off.
 
WLane said:
I may be a newbie, but I can tell that anchor chat is a well ploughed seabed of a topic on here, with many lumps of unexploded ordanance dredged up from time to time. Given that, I would like some quite specific advice on Danforth's please.

For various reasons I would like to keep one on board as a kedge/alternative to the 9kg plastimo cqr copy I inherited. I will chop the cqr for a next gen type when money is less tight. My boat is 27' and is 3.5tonnes and I have just bought 30m of 8mm chain.

The questions are; what brand to go for and what size?

Original Danforth's are rare but seem to perform much better at grabbing than the copies, having watched sv panope's tests on YouTube. I don't want to buy a dud.

1) Has anyone had a good experience with a particular brand that is readily available in the UK please?

I also don't want to go oversized, both for weight and the ease of removal if it becomes mud bound.

2) What is the minimum size I can get away with when using it as a primary anchor if the seabed is right (sand or sandy mud)

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
How often are you going to use a kedge? and in what circumstances? I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I have used a kedge in the UK, and then in the "proper" way to hold the boat by the stern into a current flow. Used a lot more in the Med to hold the boat by the stern with the bow tied to the shore.

In both types of situation I have used the same set up. Basic cheap Danforth style with a short length of chain and 30m of rope (you can add more if required).

For your situation you do not need 30m of 8mm - far too heavy and bulky. A 6kg Danforth style, 5m of 6mm chain and 30m of 10mm 3 strand would be more than adequate. all that would fit comfortably in one of the dedicated anchor bags that Force 4 sells.
 
You will not find that a 'Danforth' type will replace, in all seabeds, a CQR copy, or the original. Danforth and Fortress simply can be a liability in weed or seabeds with stones, pebbles and shell. If you want to replace the CQR copy you have inherited then you would really look to Spade, Rocna, Epsilon, Supreme, Knox, Excel- all reliable and forgiving. For a kedge a Fortress (or Guardian) is lighter - but has those seabed restrictions - and is seldom used (as a kedge) as Tranona mentions - simply because the need for a kedge seldom develops.

I'd suggest a focus on a replacement for the CQR clone - and worry about a second anchor .....later.

Its interesting you say you want a Danforth - for 'various reasons' - few here hanker after a Danforth.

But keep watching eBay - members here have bought anchors through that route - people who bought too large or too small etc etc need to offload them.

Jonathan
 
My local seabeds are sand and muddy sand mainly, occasionally mud. Not planning on going too far immediately, but I want to know that when I can't get a paid mooring mid summer that I can sleep fairly easily once I'm confident the anchor has set.

Not looking to swap the CQR for the Danforth, and not bothered about weight. Much more inclined to go down the low cost 'horses for courses' route than the 'one size fits all wonder anchor' at this stage. That may change with time as I venture further afield.

Cost is a problem as I've burnt through the 'boat fund' and now have to go cap in hand to the wife. My brownie points are going down like a lead mooring buoy.

Will give facehole marketplace a go, thanks.
 
Set up I suggested is around £100 new from Force 4 or any other chandler. Sell the 30m of 8mm and have a bit of pocket money left over!
 
Neeves said:
I'd never paid much attention to Danforths, the genuine device, until we moved to Australia - 25 years ago. I've never knowingly seen one in Australia and my only experience has been seeing them on racks in West Marine (one of their big stores outside NY to which I took a bike ride) and in Japan (another chandler). I have never understood that, given we all (without exception) advise buy a genuine model, we all find the concept of the Danforth something positive (even if few of us have ever actually seen one let alone used one) and we all suggest a Fortress as an option - why it is Danforth are not freely available in the UK or Australia. They have all the good will, they are available in Japan - what is wrong with the UK and Oz?

But I lie - I did use a genuine one once - it worked exactly as it said on the box - but one 'experience' is statistically flawed.

The fear of using an 'ALUMINIUM' (people shudder) anchor is the fear of bending. It is quite possible to bend most anchors (especially if you treat them with contempt) but find me a recent complaint of a Fortress bending.....?.... which may be because we all carry a Fortress but few actually use one.

Strangely if you go to America you will see them on bow rollers (looking somewhat ungainly) but they are carried and used as a primary.

We carry a FX 16 which we use if we anchor in a 'V' and we carry a FX 37 which we use if we anchor in soupy mud (as nothing else really works). We have never had an issue with them, they set well, are easy to deploy (they are so light). They can be difficult to retrieve (they set so well) and I think if you are impatient they might bend, see RJJ's post above.

But we would never, ever, carry a genuine Danforth, far too heavy - a Fortress is the answer ----- for us.

A FX 11 seems a reasonable suggestion.

But it would be more sensible that instead of looking at a 'Danforth' it would be better if the OP advised what he is going to use as his primary. It will have strengths and weaknesses - no anchor is perfect and his idea of carting around a heavy Danforth makes no sense, at all, to me. 30m of 8mm chain also lacks any sense - its heavy and well over strength. Retreiving 30m of 8mm chain plus a monster Danforth (on a 27' yacht) will be hard work (but will save on gym membership).

On money - if you buy a FX 11 at Stg230 - when you upgrade your yacht you can take the Fortress with you.. Over 10 years it will cost you Stg2 per month - that is not expensive.

To the OP - go back to the beginning. Tell us where you sail, do you have a windlass, post a picture of your bow and the locker in which you will store all the ground tackle - and we will then have the background to offer you sensible advice. Without more information all our recommendations are likely to be wrong and confusing.

Take care, stay safe

Jonathan
Click to expand...
Jonathan, we know that you, having a lightweight catamaran, worship light ground tackle, but would you not concede that being so dismissive of Danforth anchors is rather incongruous, when you admit that your only experience of such anchors, is ONE occasion, when it performed perfectly? The OP is looking for a relatively small and cheap anchor for occasional use in mud and sand, for which a Danforth would be fine.
 
Thanks Tranona. Might have been a bit OTT with the chain, but it was a reel end and got a good price. I have other uses for chain in my work, so it won't go to waste.

The original rode was similar to what you suggested (octo rather than 3 strand) so might plump for one of the smaller ones and see how I get on.
 
Op should get down the nearest boat jumble. Plenty of choice there, and trouble with eBay anchors is their bulk/weight often means seller won’t post.
 
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