Has anyone bought a "Rocna-style" anchor?

[Refueler]

Maybe its the old-seaman in me - but I really do not like the idea of leaving a boat at anchor to fend for itself ... regardless of what anchor / rode is used.
OK - a quickie run ashore to shops / restaurant etc. - but not for extended period ....

Regardless of weather / gear used - I am one who purposely wakes up at intervals to check all is ok ...

 

[geem]

I predate common usage of next Gen anchors as I suspect most YBWers do. I don't recall a time when keeping anchor watch was routine on leisure boats and I certainly don't think that time suddenly ended when next gen anchors became prevalent. (Clearly there are occasions when keeping an anchor watch is prudent.)

*If* people really have suddenly stopped keeping anchor watches in recent years it's more likely to be the advent of GPS and GPS anchor alarms than better anchors.

Currently some people have next gen anchors and some don't and I've never heard anyone say "Oh we have to stay up to keep an anchor watch because we haven't got a next Gen anchor yet." nor have I heard the inverse.

I have never used an anchor alarm and we don't do anchor watches. I have got up in the night when a 40kt squall goes through but mainly to check nobody is dragging into us

 

[Refueler]

Here's what I usually use .....

That small anchor - I call it my AC14 ... its not actually AC14 design - but along similar idea ... but it has incredible holding ... its only about 5kg .. but I have kedged my 4T motor sailer with it ....

 

[Refueler]

I sympathise with OP and his quest ... it really is a can of worms subject on here !!

 

[Mark-1]

I most definitely did not say that fitting a new generation anchor obviates the need for anchor watches.

In the context of my post and your reply I think that was broadly the point you were making, or at least the corollary:

Has anyone bought a "Rocna-style" anchor?

If I *did* miss your point, then I sincerely apologise. Fair winds.

 

[Supertramp]

I'm not sure anecdotes help much, but anchor threads are usually laced with them.

I replaced my 30yr old CQR with a Lewmar Epsilon last season. Big improvement was that it retrieved and stowed on the roller without demolishing furler etc.

But I am not convinced there is much difference between the two so far. On one occasion in 30knts the Epsilon dragged repeatedly in shallow water with some eel grass. After several hours I swapped it off the rode and added a smaller CQR kedge which bit and held in 35knt gusts no problem.

My learnings are that a new gen anchor probably needs a different setting technique from a CQR and that it is worth carrying a range of anchor types in case like me you meet an especially difficult substrate.

 

[GHA]

I have never used an anchor alarm and we don't do anchor watches. I have got up in the night when a 40kt squall goes through but mainly to check nobody is dragging into us

Wow bigger balls than me!! I can't really relax without know what's going on. Seems to get worse as the years go by or maybe just much more attention is paid to that little voice in the back of my head.

Opencpn/signalk/raspberry pi is match made in heaven for that.

Edit: Always some good comes out of these threads, makes you back off & think a bit. Well, me anyway. And had such an exciting idea to implement, bit of node red recording wind & nav nmea sentences on a rolling 12 hour or so then you can play back the squall at 3am & see what happened. Maybe ais as well so should it come to a bang in the night and an argument you have rock solid data to back up what actually happened.

 

[webcraft]

Very pleased with my Knox. UK made.

Yep, the Knox is a great anchor. I was once running an RYA course where the boat owner had asked me to test an experimental 7Kg Rocna he was carrying on board. The boat was a Sigma 33.

It was blowing a hoolie on the second day, and the beat up to Rothesay from Cumbrae had to be postponed. We hacked our way up to Kilchattan Bay and practiced anchoring under sail using this wee anchor. It set first time with a bang and held in 30 knots of wind. To further test it I put the engine on and gave it 2000rpm in astern, wind still blowing 30kts over the deck. We didn't move. This procedure was repeated two more times to give the other two Day Skippers a shot, with the same result.

So I had no hesitation choosing a 9Kg Knox for Avy-J before we set off South. We have now spent dozens of nights at anchor, more than a few in winds over 30 knots. The anchor has ploughed very slowly (about 2m/hour) in soft churned up mud, but never broken out - and it has never moved in other substrates. We sleep soundly.

I suspect if went up a size to 14Kg the anchor would not plough even in 40kts and soft mud, but this has never been an issue I have lost any sleep over.

 

[geem]

Wow bigger balls than me!! I can't really relax without know what's going on. Seems to get worse as the years go by or maybe just much more attention is paid to that little voice in the back of my head.

Opencpn/signalk/raspberry pi is match made in heaven for that.

Edit: Always some good comes out of these threads, makes you back off & think a bit. Well, me anyway. And had such an exciting idea to implement, bit of node red recording wind & nav nmea sentences on a rolling 12 hour or so then you can play back the squall at 3am & see what happened. Maybe ais as well so should it come to a bang in the night and an argument you have rock solid data to back up what actually happened.

I sleep,with earplugs in. I wouldn't hear an anchor alarm even if I had one

 

[Neeves]

I sleep,with earplugs in. I wouldn't hear an anchor alarm even if I had one

We wired in a piezo electric alarm - no-one can ignore the noise - I have actually wondered if it was overkill its so shrill your heart beat increases to dangerous levels.

We actually never used it - and trusted the anchor (usually an aluminium Excel, 7kg x 6mm chain, Australian made ).

Jonathan

 

[GHA]

I sleep,with earplugs in. I wouldn't hear an anchor alarm even if I had one

My signalk anchor alarm.
Turn the sound on!

https://imgur.com/XIpRHPl

It's actually so nice to have an ancient mobile phone by the companionway so at a glance you can see where the anchor is in relation to the boat.
Cost. Zero. Power, tiny, 10mA something like that with screen off

 

[Refueler]

As I say I am old school and cannot imagine not keeping an eye on anchor position.

I have alrams on plotters .. mobile phone ... tablets and my get up intervals to actually look !!

 

[GHA]

As I say I am old school and cannot imagine not keeping an eye on anchor position.

I have alrams on plotters .. mobile phone ... tablets and my get up intervals to actually look !!

Wouldn't call that old school at all!! More like knowing we live in a universe which we can't control and runs on probabilities.
And no downside at all.

 

[hurley]

My signalk anchor alarm.
Turn the sound on!

https://imgur.com/XIpRHPl

It's actually so nice to have an ancient mobile phone by the companionway so at a glance you can see where the anchor is in relation to the boat.
Cost. Zero. Power, tiny, 10mA something like that with screen off

Hi what app is this, looks good.

 

[hurley]

Great idea

 

[GHA]

Hi what app is this, looks good.

It's created by a raspberry pi running openplotter/signalk so not just a mobile phone, the phone just logs onto the wifi hotspot created by the Pi & displays what it gets sent. Very powerful, another dashboard shows whatever data you want to see.
Welcome to OpenPlotter’s documentation! — OpenPlotter 3 documentation

 

[Farmer Piles]

I had a 15kg Bruce copy that came with our Mobo. It held well in mud but was always slow to set in anything else and tended to always set and lie at an angle rather than tip down. Last year I bought a Rocna Vulcan, same size, and it sets that fast and that hard that you almost take your teeth out on the wheel when it bites Haven't yet tested it in poor conditions.

 

[NormanS]

I spent a night in Canna in a gale on a Fisherman anchor. Cut straight through the weed and held perfectly all night. (No anchor watch was kept.)

An anchor design so old nobody knows when it was invented but likely prehistoric - the ancient Greeks certainly used similar. Worked fine.

I remember many years ago, lending a fisherman anchor in Canna, to a poor soul who couldn't get a grip there. I had a job getting it back from him the next morning. That wasn't you, was it?

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Thought I'd post this, as it's an anchor thread - it illustrates the need for high-tensile steel!

 

[jane444blue]

Look at SV Panope on YouTube. Hours of anchor porn there to watch evening after evening, in between reading comments here. Kept me going the winter before last. Then, 4 templates measured to the boat, I jumped and bought my chosen one. No regrets so far.......a Viking