Lightweight anchor for 24' light yacht

[slawosz]

Hi,
I have quite heavy anchor on my Achilles 24, but I am wondering about having second one, just to anchor for few hours for fishing or when my engine would decide not to work - to slow boat down. What would you recommend?

 

[lw395]

A cheap Danforth imitation, 10m of 6mm chain and enough 10mm (ish) nylon rope to make about 5x the depth of water.
If you want to fish where it's deep, the top half of the rode can be cheap 12mm 'lorry rope'.
If cash permits, an aluminium anchor makes life easy.

Obviously, it's good to have a more serious anchor in case you find you need to sit through a gale one night.

 

[V1701]

+1 for Danforth (unless it's for use where there's a weedy bottom)...

 

[zoidberg]

A cheap Danforth imitation

There are lots of them about. Most of them are quite unreliable - especially when wanted to do their job well - and that's usually when they do not seem so cheap after all. A GENUINE Danforth is, however, a good anchor in appropriate seabed conditions, but relatively heavy. For that work, and proven to be very reliable, the Fortress anchor is superb - and frequently recommended. Such can often be had virtually unused, functionally perfect, but 'cheap as chips' when bought on here or eBay as 'used'.

 

[Iliade]

+1 I'm very impressed with my little Fortress.

I do suggest putting a trip line on it though (note to self!) because they can set surprisingly deeply and I would hate to leave it behind. I suspect that the main reason to use a large one with a large boat is to stop it doing just that; I bought a used FX-7 (1.8kg!) as a bower for a 26' 3.5T boat.

 

[noelex]

The aluminium designs based on the Danforth or Brittany anchors are the lightest models available, as this type of anchor does not need any ballast.
These are not great designs as a primary anchor because of a few weaknesses such as being less reliable with a significant change in the direction of pull, but for your requirements, the above should be ideal to compliment your main anchor.
The designs include the Fortress, Guardian, Lewmar LFX, Manson Racer and the FOB light.

The Fortress or the very similar, but significantly cheaper Guardian anchor, are the most common and safest choice. The Lewmar LFX looks very good on paper, but it is too new to tell. The Manson Racer, as the name implies, has been designed for race boats so there are only a few reports on its performance. The FOB light is a Brittany based design and therefore the short stock makes it easier to stow and deploy. It also disassembles for storage very quickly and with some titanium parts is perhaps the most sophisticated design, but once again, its performance is more of an unknown and it is difficult to buy outside France.

The aluminium Spade is a wildcard to include in the mix. This is a very different design that needs lead ballast, so even in aluminium it is not as light as the above choices. It is more suitable as a primary anchor compared to the others, as it responds to changes in direction of pull better than the above anchors, and it is also a little more versatile, but unfortunately it is still not great in very hard substrates.

 

[Neeves]

We use all aluminium anchors, an Aluminium Excel (from Anchor Right in Australia) Spade and 2 Fortress (on our 38' 7t cat). After years of using both a steel Excel and Spade and the matching aluminium versions we would not use steel anchors again. The steel anchors sit forlorn in my workshop gathering dust. The Spade and Excel perform the same as their steel counterparts that weigh twice as much - most people who criticise aluminium anchors have not used the anchors themselves - and simply repeat anecdotal comment - we have years of use - down in the Roaring Forties. In all our anchoring we have never found a hard substrate to defeat any of our anchors - in fact hard substrates are a bit of a phurphy - alluded to but as uncommon as hen's teeth - introduced to maintain the fear factor in anchor threads.

If you look at the Fortress, which is a great anchor, it can be disassembled - but it is a bit of a faff. Don't be tempted to buy a bigger anchor than recommended (just because its light and you think, or are told, by the armchair experts that you need weight) - you will not be able to set it deeply - the stock will protrude and it then becomes easier to trip in a change of tide.

We have gone one size down for our Fortress, a FX 16 rather than the recommended FX 23, that we might use as a primary - simply because of the self tripping issue.

If cost is an issue (and its an issue for most of us) then if you have need to go to The States, or know someone well enough who does) then the alternative to eBay is to buy in America - a small aluminium anchor will easily fit in luggage - and they are cheaper in the US (for obvious reasons) than anywhere else.

I cannot recommend the FOB Lite - having seen its shank snap.

If, again, cost is an issue - look at the Kobra - steel and has good reviews.

 

[Porthandbuoy]

I use a small Bruce anchor with 5m chain plus rope as a lunch hook.

 

[Iliade]

Just for clarity, I was not recommending oversizing the Fortress, but I do recommend not undersizing because I found that mine can be very well set after the boat has bounced on it for a short while. I think what it was doing was burying itself entirely, perhaps considerably. (My last boat was marginally heavy but within the recommended length; I bought it as a lunch hook)

I lost a steel Danforth in this area years ago because I couldn't get it unstuck so maybe a local issue or perhaps I just need to man up!

 

[noelex]

Just for clarity, I was not recommending oversizing the Fortress, but I do recommend not undersizing because I found that mine can be very well set after the boat has bounced on it for a short while. I think what it was doing was burying itself entirely, perhaps considerably. (My last boat was marginally heavy but within the recommended length; I bought it as a lunch hook)

The Fortress anchor sizing table only considers wind strength up to a very modest 30 knots.
To quote Fortress:

“Boat anchor size recommendations are for boats of average windage and proportions in 30 knots of wind, average bottom conditions, and moderate protection from open seas. Remember that the loads in 42 knots of wind are twice as much as in 30 knots.”

For the OP’s application where the anchor will not be used for overnight or unattended anchoring a small and easily managed model can be a useful compromise, but at least take note how Fortress formulate the anchor sizing advice.

If contemplating selecting a smaller anchor than Fortress recommends be aware of this limitation before purchasing.

 

[Neeves]

Precisely how many people are going to anchor a 24' yacht fully exposed (so measurable at the masthead) to 30 knots of wind - with its accompanying chop. A 30 knot wind will have gusts of 40 knots.

Based on much testing of Fortress and other good anchors - the issue will not be - will it hold (it is very likely that in nice anchorage with a sand bottom - it will hold, having been subjected to a sustained 30 knots). The issue as mentioned in an early post will be retrieval - it may be buried so deep as to be impossible to retrieve - in the absence of a tripping line. I suspect because Fortress do set deeply (and more deeply if the Fortress is small - for a given load, this may be a factor in Fortress recommendations - slightly over size so they are easier to retrieve).

Some people appear to attempt to engender as much fear as possible in anchor threads.

If the OP is 'normal' he will seek shelter from 30 knots of wind and is very unlikely to anchor fully exposed to such breeze to enjoy a quiet and relaxing lunch.

Jonathan

 

[steve350]

Hi,
I have quite heavy anchor on my Achilles 24, but I am wondering about having second one, just to anchor for few hours for fishing or when my engine would decide not to work - to slow boat down. What would you recommend?

For your purposes I'd say a 4kg Delta (or cheap delta copy) or a Plastimo Kobra would be quite adequate. Plus 10m chain and rode.