Kedge anchor

BigJoe

BigJoe

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My kedge anchor was actually my old anchor, which has now been sent to the big anchorage in the sky.

I am thinking of purchasing a Stockless Anchor, like the one in the pic.

Does anyone actually buy kedge anchors, or just use old mand-me-downs.

We were thinking 20 or 25 kiloish, for 46 feet boat.
 

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We got an ex-mod Ali one special for our kedge, in 3 years only cleaned it never deployed, reason for Ali our boats 55ft and wanted to be able to man handle if necessary, do also have a large fortress but that's in the bow locker. Our main is a 75lb cqr.
 
Depend what you mean by 'kedge'

You really need a spare anchor, you might (even if only temporarily) lose the bower (or primary). So -assuming you cater for an anchor 'loss' the second anchor should be as good as the primary. But taking up Vyv's point having a different type/design means you cater for different seabeds (and Fortress is renowned in soupy mud). If you do want or need to kedge - you might want to row out the kedge - and an alloy anchor could be part of your consideration (in Europe, FOB Lite, Fortress (Manson's Racer?) or Spade.

I'm sure people buy anchors of the sort in your image - I met someone recently who bought and paid full whack for a new Manson CQR clone - I'd have given him my old one (with a health warning).

Jonathan
 
Most boats use the same anchor as a spare and as a kedge.

It’s quite possible to row out, position, and drop, a 112lbs Fisherman, single handed, in a small dinghy, provided it has a rigid transom and a thwart. I’ve done it. The tricky bit is getting the anchor off the boat and hung off the transom of the dinghy and getting the coil of warp into the bottom of the dinghy and free to run. I’m not recommending the Fisherman, I’m just pointing out that, if you can get it hung off the transom of the dinghy, you can use a big, heavy, anchor as a kedge.

Never, ever, put the anchor in the dinghy. Lower it overboard from the yacht into the water and then hang it off the stern of the dinghy with a slip line round the thwart.
 
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We have a Kobra 16 kg as a main anchor and a Fortress Guardian for a ketch. I have the option to use the Fortress on the bow to assist the Kobra is situation requires. I carry 3 anchors, one main, one ketch and a spare one. I think a ketch anchor is important to have and ready at any time. If I loose my main anchor I need to deploy the ketch within minutes and able to have trust in it. So, I always had good ketch anchors even if I had to purchase one.
 
CAPTAIN FANTASTIC said:
We have a Kobra 16 kg as a main anchor and a Fortress Guardian for a ketch. I have the option to use the Fortress on the bow to assist the Kobra is situation requires. I carry 3 anchors, one main, one ketch and a spare one. I think a ketch anchor is important to have and ready at any time. If I loose my main anchor I need to deploy the ketch within minutes and able to have trust in it. So, I always had good ketch anchors even if I had to purchase one.
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We sail in a ketch. :rolleyes:
 
Minn said:
Most boats use the same anchor as a spare and as a kedge.

It’s quite possible to row out, position, and drop, a 112lbs Fisherman, single handed, in a small dinghy, provided it has a rigid transom and a thwart. I’ve done it. The tricky bit is getting the anchor off the boat and hung off the transom of the dinghy and getting the coil of warp into the bottom of the dinghy and free to run. I’m not recommending the Fisherman, I’m just pointing out that, if you can get it hung off the transom of the dinghy, you can use a big, heavy, anchor as a kedge.

Never, ever, put the anchor in the dinghy. Lower it overboard from the yacht into the water and then hang it off the stern of the dinghy with a slip line round the thwart.
Click to expand...

+1

Though the idea of a 112lb Fisherman fills me with horror. Your small dinghy must be bigger than mine - even manhandling into (edit onto the outside of the transom :) ) the dinghy fills me with foreboding.

Jonathan
 
I once had to lay out a 140lb Danforth by dinghy. (Avon Redcrest) I wouldn't recommend it. Normally, to lay it out as a second anchor, it was arranged outside the bulwark, with the anchor and its length of chain, hitched on to the bulwark guard rail with bits of string. The procedure was to motor ahead and out to starboard, till approximately as far ahead as the first anchor, and then cut the strings, and fall back onto the anchor.

Now with a smaller boat and much lighter gear, it's somewhat simpler, and probably safer.
 
FWIW, I can understand the "better move the kedge hung by a rope under the dinghy", yes much better, though much less agree with the "never, ever put it into the dinghy", probably depends on sizea but I have done it a number of times and hey ho I am still alive as well as my rubber dinghy ( just inflatable bottom). Sometimes there is no choice.
Of course it depends on what kit you have, but try moving a sensible size light alloy kedge hung at the transom of a 4hp powered rubber dinghy in a swift current, I am sure we ll discuss again after you have drifted a few miles downstream, anyway myself I will not attempt it again.
On occasions, I had the dinghy with the kedge/warp inside it (big african laundry bucket) hung with a halyard on the side of the boat, ready to be dropped in case of grounding.
Sometimes the dinghy anchor can be more important than the main boat kedge: if you cannot stop the dinghy where you want to drop the kedge, that may mean a handful of unsuccessful tries, sometimes you have the chance of trying again, sometimes not.

Anyway just my thoughts, probably an allergy to any general rules :)
 
Minn said:
Never, never, “into”!
Click to expand...

For 5 years our cat was out on charter and several times a year I would bring the 25kg Rocna down to Croatia in the car, load it into the dinghy, drive it around to the bows, lower the Delta into the dinghy (I now had 2 anchors in the dingy!) and swap the Delta for the Rocna before driving back to the pontoon.

And I'm still alive to tell the tale. ;)

Richard
 
RichardS said:
For 5 years our cat was out on charter and several times a year I would bring the 25kg Rocna down to Croatia in the car, load it into the dinghy, drive it around to the bows, lower the Delta into the dinghy (I now had 2 anchors in the dingy!) and swap the Delta for the Rocna before driving back to the pontoon.

And I'm still alive to tell the tale. ;)

Richard
Click to expand...

Gosh, how amusing! What has this story got to do with laying out a kedge, please?
 
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