Fortress anchor - why did you buy one?

N

Neeves

Well-Known Member
Joined
20 Nov 2011
Messages
14,070
Location
Sydney, Australia.
Visit site
Following on from my thread on 'hard seabeds' I wondered why people had bought a Fortress.

It has a number of attributes and some are: dismountable, light weight, ability to alter the fluke angle and optimise for mud or sand and it does have an amazingly high hold to weight ratio. It does have some weaknesses, anchors ARE a compromise - there is no perfect anchor - but if you bought one I assume you did the research and know its weaknesses - so no need to reiterate :)

I just wondered why people bought.

And leading on from this - how many bought because of the variable fluke angle and how many actually make the alteration?

We are acknowledged believers in alloy, or light weight. Our three, now 4, anchors are demountable - but we carry them all assembled. We do (or did) alter the fluke angle of the Fortress, for thin mud. We have recently bought an FX 16 and intend carrying it, assembled for 30 degrees, and also carry the older FX23 assembled for 45 degrees (I cannot be bothered with the faffing around to alter the angles). We do anchor in mud - of varying consistency. We often anchor in a fork or V and would now use the FX 16 in sand as one of the 2 anchors but use 'another' anchor for weed, stones etc

Jonathan
 
I've used a Fortress Fx16(I think), bought at a good price from ebay many years ago, on my previous boat, a Jaguar 27. Used initially as a spare/kedge but then I found the CQR Lookalike bower anchor was rubbish so used is as the main anchor - it was excellent.
Now have an Fx23 as the kedge anchor on my M33, it's nice and light, kept assembled in the locker with 6m chain and rope. Only used once as my bower is a Manson Supreme which is excellent. All in East Coast mud.
 
Because it's super light, works incredibly well in the mud and sand around the East coast where I predominantly anchor, and folds flat so it fits in my anchor locker. I've only got about twelve feet of light chain on it then about 30m of line, and that will happily hold me with twenty five plus knots of breeze right up the stern..... and don't ask me how I found this out. Lets say it was a rather restless night......
 
savageseadog said:
We have to have two for racing. Ones an Aluminium anchor, Brittany I think, the other a Fortress.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you meant but you might have an FOB Light ( or FOB Lite) and Fortress, both are alloy. Its a good idea to have anchors of different styles, but I don't know the FOB that well. Most racing yachts carry Fortress (or Guardian), for obvious reasons. I cannot think why they would buy anything else (except Spade or Excel alloy), Volvo actually specify and supply the groundtackle and define where it is stored and all the Vendee Globe, or IMOCA 60s use Fortress of Guardians. The VG yachts have used their Fortress in anger, at least twice recently (a nice recommendation) - check the location of, I think its called Sandy Bay, in Auckland Island - its in the middle of nowhere.

Jonathan
 
I haven't got one (too tight to buy one) but it's on my wish list & light weight is the sole reason.
 
I bought one because my mate bought a Chinese knockoff Zapcat-alike from eBay, with a 35-year-old dodgy engine.

I didn't want to be drifting out to sea while trying to fix said engine.

A zapcat, being basically a couple of boards balanced on top of two large inflatable sausages, is not a good environment for trying to store a conventional anchor. However, the fortress is light and can be broken down into a long thin shape, yet has good holding power. I made a special bag that held the broken-down parts, a stainless spanner on a lanyard for tightening the two bolts on assembly, a couple of metres of chain and a long length of paracord on a plywood winder, and had straps attached to secure it onto the outside of one tube.

As it happened, I never actually anchored with it to fix the engine (the outboard did break down regularly, but in each case we were happy to drift until we got it going again). We did though anchor a couple of times while waiting for the Brambles to uncover for the annual cricket match, and the whole setup worked very well. Strong tide, but good holding in soft sand.

Pete
 
I bought one as a Kedge/Stern Anchor because it was very light weight to handle from the dinghy but also because it was big enough (so they claim) to use as a bower on my 35 foot cat - so it was a perfect back up if I ever lost my main Rocna (thankfully never did). I was slightly dubious about how well it would do as a main anchor in an emergency - after all I wad gone for a 25kg Rocna on a 4 tonne, 35 foot boat (that's 2 sizes above recommended) - but when used as a stern anchor in Ibiza, over weed and sand with just 5m of chain and then all rode to keep it light in the dinghy, we had a sudden 180 degree shift in the wind and about 40 knots blowing and it held for a couple of hours (until the wind died) without moving despite being set by hand from a dinghy - I was mightily impressed :)
 
I bought one for a kedge with lightness and ability to fit in stern locker being top reasons. Only had cause to use it once in ten years, when trying to kedge off a rocky shoal that had caught the helmsperson unawares (! expletives deleted!!). Unfortunately it was a Swedish rock , there was no mud and the Fortress was useless in those circumstances.
 
The Fortress and Guardian anchors are great secondary/kedge anchors. Every cruising boat should have one.

In my view, you need to be very careful using one when there is a possibility the direction of pull will change significantly. This is partly why I would not use one as a primary anchor except in unusual circumstances.

The 45 degree setting of the Fortress is a nice option, but please be careful when using this setting. If the seabed is not soft or even very soft, in my experience the anchor will not set at all and has very minimal holding ability in this case. So you need to be sure of the seabed. Even anchorages with soft mud sometimes have patches, or layers that are firmer.

So I see the Fortress as an anchor with an important, but specialised role.
 
noelex said:
In my view, you need to be very careful using one when there is a possibility the direction of pull will change significantly. .
Click to expand...

My main anchor is a Danforth and it's almost exclusively used in situations where the pull will change by 180 degs during the night. I can see how/why this could go wrong, but based on my experience it seems to be a slightly over stated problem. Certainly, the possibility has long since ceased to disturb my sleep.
 
Thanks for the comment. It is helpful to share our experiences. A couple of questions if I may.

Mark-1 said:
My main anchor is a Danforth and it's almost exclusively used in situations where the pull will change by 180 degs during the night.
Click to expand...

Is this a tide/current change, or a wind change?

If the former (which seems more likely), what is the typical current strength and your LWL?
 
Last edited:
Evidence seems to suggest that if you lightly set a fluke anchor, Danforth or Fortress (and presumably Britany etc) they maybe prone to somersaulting or disengaging and may not re-set (but this is also true of many or all anchors). If a Fortress is well set it is very unlikely, if not almost impossible, for it to trip, in change of tide. Simply witness how difficult is can be to retrieve when well set.

It is correct - if it is assembled for mud at 45 degrees it may simply not engage, at all, in sand seabed, slightly hard - but then most anchors won't work at all in soft soupy mud - as I said at the outset

Anchors are a compromise - there is no perfect anchor.

Fortress offer good hold in both sand and soup, no other anchors that flexibility - so don't knock it for being useless if incorrectly adjusted.

But does anyone alter the setting?

Did anyone buy one because it does work in soft seabeds?

Jonathan

Edit

It is interesting that though people condemn fluke anchors as a primary they are terribly common as primaries on yachts in America and Britany common, or not unusual, as primaries in the Med. We learn from my Hard Seabed thread that hard seabeds are common n the Med and I can only assume those who use Britanys as primaries don't anchor and Americans don't realise what they are missing :)

close edit
 
Last edited:
I had a 60lb CQR bower and a 40lb CQR kedge, both came with the boat. A new Fortress came up for sale on here at a low cost but it had a bent stock. There is no doubt that the anchor had never been used and that the stock was bent on purpose, maybe by someone testing it. There is a horizontal mash, very slight on the flat side of the stock and the eye for the shackle was slightly mashed where something was pulling the shackle sideways. Anyway, I bought for low cost, contacted Fortress who sent me a new stock FOC; about GBP50 from here.
 
I originally bought a Fortress FX14 for my 23 ft Hunter Minstrel as it was the only anchor that would fit in the slot in the bow of the boat, which is for the forward mast of the cat rigged version (Hunter Liberty). It worked well in the mud of the east anglian coast. I used the voucher and sent of for the mud flaps which were sent free of charge from the USA, what brilliant service. I kept the Fortress and it is now easily stored in the cockpit locker of my Moody 31 as my kedge with 5m of chain attached to rope. I have only used it a couple of times off the stern as a lunch hook.
 
I bought mine for anchoring in thin sand areas with limestone underneath (the Cayes off Belize and Northern Belize) mainland) . The sand is too thin for a Spade or a Bruce to get a good grip, it also works well as a No 2 anchor if i need to set 2 anchors
 
Bought mine as a kedge while on a work trip to US. Came bag in my baggage. V good price over there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top