F43 Anchoring (again) Swanage

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PRH

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Ok, so I am new to Sealine (March 09) and the Bruce anchor. As you will already have seen on another posts the weather at Swanage wasn't that good, high winds and lots of veering. First failed attempt was my fault, I only found out when we wound the anchor back in and it didn't take very long.... (Yes I know the chain should be marked but not got around to that job yet).

Second attempt put loads of chain down, went astern and it held. Intention was to stop overnight but I wasn't happy so went off to investigate the buoys in the tender. Got back and stepped onboard only to find we were drifting back - again - fast. Got straight up onto the flybridge and started the engines so no drama.
When we recovered the anchor it was thick with weed.

Got on a buoy and spent a very uncomfortable overnight rolling. Left at 7 this morning and now in Poole for a sleep later (after the F1).....

Last boat 33ft had a Danforth and I have anchored at Swanage many times overnight. In fact the Danforth never ever let me down.

Now, the question is - what did I do wrong on the second attempt?

I would not stay anywhere overnight at the moment, lost my confidence perhaps!

Have to add I was not alone lots of people were having problems getting anchored.....
 
hi

Did you allow for the tidal rise when you anchored, we have had above average tides recently and on springs the range recently has been a good 4.5 meters, if you came in and anchored and the tide rose you would have too little chanin out and could move.
 
With the weather recently, it's possible the wind has brought up alot of weed and it has collected in the bay. We experienced this in Penzance this week where there was loads of weed on the beach and the seawater pool was empty due to excessive weed in the bay.
 
Thanks for the reply, we anchored at high tide and it only held for 45 minutes so I guess that wasn't the problem..... Good news about this area is the range is not as big either, only 2m on Sat I think.
 
Thanks for the reply Mark, that could have been a contributing factor though would have been very confident in the Danforth holding.....
 
Are you sure you have a Bruce? Every F43 I've ever seen has a Delta anchor. The Delta anchor is a brilliant piece of kit, for my money - never had a problem with it. Sounds like the weed was the problem second time around, TBH. As you say, the holding in Swanage is normally fine.
 
If it is a bruce, then i'd consider changing it for a delta, much better IMO, and consistently high performer in the tests. However, as Wiggo says, it would normally be a delta on an F43, so probably you just hit a thick patch of weed
 
Wiggo, thanks for pointing that out, yes just walked around the pointy end and someone has replaced the Bruce with a Delta!!!!

Same question to everyone though......
 
The Delta is not good in weed; this is typical behavior and one of its to-be-expected characteristics. Funnily enough you would probably have more luck with a Bruce. The Delta's tip is too bulky and not sharp enough to penetrate grass/weed.

No anchor's guaranteed to work consistenly in weed, but any of the new generation types will offer a vast improvement. Research feedback etc.
 
craigsmith said:
The Delta is not good in weed; this is typical behavior and one of its to-be-expected characteristics. Funnily enough you would probably have more luck with a Bruce. The Delta's tip is too bulky and not sharp enough to penetrate grass/weed.

No anchor's guaranteed to work consistenly in weed, but any of the new generation types will offer a vast improvement. Research feedback etc.
Click to expand...

I have a Bruce, albeit with a slight kink in it, and have found it gives good holding in all sorts of going - weed and sand especially good. I think the kink actually helps as if the anchor starts to give the kink forces it to move sideways which digs it back in again.
 
PRH said:
Ok, so I am new to Sealine (March 09) and the Bruce anchor. As you will already have seen on another posts the weather at Swanage wasn't that good, high winds and lots of veering. First failed attempt was my fault, I only found out when we wound the anchor back in and it didn't take very long.... (Yes I know the chain should be marked but not got around to that job yet).

Second attempt put loads of chain down, went astern and it held. Intention was to stop overnight but I wasn't happy so went off to investigate the buoys in the tender. Got back and stepped onboard only to find we were drifting back - again - fast. Got straight up onto the flybridge and started the engines so no drama.
When we recovered the anchor it was thick with weed.

Got on a buoy and spent a very uncomfortable overnight rolling. Left at 7 this morning and now in Poole for a sleep later (after the F1).....

Last boat 33ft had a Danforth and I have anchored at Swanage many times overnight. In fact the Danforth never ever let me down.

Now, the question is - what did I do wrong on the second attempt?

I would not stay anywhere overnight at the moment, lost my confidence perhaps!

Have to add I was not alone lots of people were having problems getting anchored.....
Click to expand...
I don't want to be contentious but anchors on Sealines are generally undersized, whatever type is fitted. I've had 3 of them, including a F43, and IMHO, all of the anchors were too small. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the F43 only has a 10kg anchor fitted? According to the Lewmar website , http://en.lewmar.com/products/index.aspx?lang=1&page_id=63 the correct Delta size for a 40-50 footer is 16kg. I've had Bruces as well as Deltas and I agree with Nick H, the Delta works better in weed than the Bruce, the shape of which is better suited to mud/clay IMHO. The other thing to say is that flybridge boats do carry a lot of windage so you have to be pretty sure about the holding to drop anchor overnight if high winds are forecast.
What I've done on my last 2 boats is increase the anchor and chain size to the maximum that the existing bow roller and winch can handle. Unfortunately, I've got a feeling that upping the anchor size isn't possible on Sealines because of the beak design at the bow but it's worth looking at. Increasing the chain size is also worth doing because IMHO, the chain plays as big a part in holding the boat as the anchor, especially when the anchor can't get a good hold on the sea bed
 
Yes just checked it is indeed 10kg which seems daft to me. The chain size is 10mm which should help a bit. Will start a new thread on how to get a bigger anchor to fit....
 
Get a big enough anchor and, voila, you won't have to trim the bows down!!

Are you at all limited, in terms of design, by what will fit in the Sealine hidden anchor recess thing?
 
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