Fortress anchor - why did you buy one?

Re: Fortress anchor - why did you buy one

Our good friend Sarabande found an Fx-23 on Gumtree which had sold to someone in Devon for £30, beating 'Sara' by less than 10 minutes. I have two Fx-16s; the pair cost me well under £100. Each still has the sticky makers' labels on.
 
Re: Fortress anchor - why did you buy one

There is something wrong with that anchor Roberto, which is why the owner is unhappy.

I'd say the crown has been installed back to front.

In your image - there is nothing stopping the shank from folding through about 300 degrees, it will fold from left to right and go right 'underneath, and the anchor will never, ever, work.

If its cheap - buy it, quickly - but check the Fortress website first and have a look at the 'hinge' area (crown) the central extrusion to which all the components attach looks, odd. As I say I think that central component needs to be turned round and then the shank will be restrained at 30 degrees to the flukes.

Jonathan
 
Re: Fortress anchor - why did you buy one

Neeves said:
There is something wrong with that anchor Roberto, which is why the owner is unhappy.

I'd say the crown has been installed back to front.

In your image - there is nothing stopping the shank from folding through about 300 degrees, it will fold from left to right and go right 'underneath, and the anchor will never, ever, work.

If its cheap - buy it, quickly - but check the Fortress website first and have a look at the 'hinge' area (crown) the central extrusion to which all the components attach looks, odd. As I say I think that central component needs to be turned round and then the shank will be restrained at 30 degrees to the flukes.

Jonathan
Click to expand...

Sorry bad attempt of mine at making a joke, I saw the photograph and it made me laugh.
Apart from not knowing how to mount it, the owner asks for a near new (European) price.

Most of the Fortress one sees on sale second hand are basically new out of the box, without even a minor scratch, why would one buy a rather expensive anchor and never use it? Maybe it's the "just in case secondary anchor" idea.
 
Re: Fortress anchor - why did you buy one

Sorry - humour is seldom expressed in these posts, more's the pity

I think people buy a second anchor - because you should. I think in some countries you must have a second anchor (maybe even in Oz!) They are a bit like lifejackets, life rafts, MOB buttons auto DSC alarms, EPIRBs - for most people they are never used (and then they forget how to use them). We had to carry 2 anchors for Cat 1 races, but (from memory) not Cat 3 or 4 where only needed one.

The reality is most people day sail or only venture out when the weather is nice - nothing wrong with that. So they have the kit that is mandated for offshore - but never use it. All our Cat 1 stuff we would strip off and store at home, saved weight for inshore races - it might then get forgotten when the yacht is sold.

When they come to sell up they discover the loss, or depreciation, they are going to make and strip out anything that can reduce that loss - maybe??

I confess to having a rather dated,, but in service, and unused 8 man life raft, a set of unused lifejackets and barely used (spare) harnesses and tethers. We also have a storm jib (which we have tried for fit - but never used in anger). I have a set of gear pullers, used once to take the water pump apart when I needed to replace the seals.

When the time comes - we'ed simply sell Josepheline as is - who wants a storm jib?!

Fortress suggested that they had sold over 500,000 units since they started - I suspect many of them are, or were, unused.

There's nowt as queer as folk.

Jonathan
 
Neeves said:
Following on from my thread on 'hard seabeds' I wondered why people had bought a Fortress.
Click to expand...

Because I wanted a kedge better than the Danforth-u-like which came with the boat, and because I wanted one which my young crew could handle easily. I have just acquired an Ankaralina webbing reel to go with it.

Having something which should cope with soft mud (the anchor's enemy) is in theory nice, but as I don't anchor anywhere like that at the moment it's a hypothetical consideration.

Finally, I bought mine because I found it new and unused at a boat jumble for 1/2 the retail price. I am a Scot, after all.
 
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I'm a Fortress fan, but that is ONLY because I see a lot of soft mud. It would not be my choice--not first, not even 4th--for anything hard. I've used them on harder bottoms, 3 boats ago and many years, and they were unimpressive.

But what is so wrong with a single purpose tool, if it excels at that single purpose? My shop is full of tools like that.
 
If forumeers didn't buy ( and sell ) Fortress anchors, we'd need to find something else to spend 9 pages on...... :rolleyes:

It would be a poor Beaulieu Boat Jumble if I came away without yet another anchor!
 
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