New Anchor

markc

markc

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Apologies for opening up the perennial 'which anchor?' debate, but I'm thinking of changing mine. I currently have a 30kg Bruce (handbook says it came with 25kg, not sure when it was upgraded). Truth is over the years I haven't heard great reports of the Bruce holding well so I would like to change it. My current favourite is the Rocna, but would appreciate hearing anyone's direct experience with this or any of the alternatives. I have seen the Ultra, but don't intend to spend £3.5k on an anchor, more like around the £1k mark. Also not sure if I should be looking at the 33kg or 40kg Rocna

There may be some considerations about fit, so here's the current set-up...


anchor.jpg
 
there's a thread in PBO [yet again!] go there and doze off...
according to the guy mainly posting about anchoring there you should avoid the Mantus like the plague (as it doesn't work due to the wrong shallow angle) and buy any other ng anchors, I think preferably a Rocna.
Ah, and avoid plough anchors that they don't really consider ng (I think) so no Deltas please.
Further for thin sand, you should have a fortress as well, general verdict is that one anchor cannot be enough!
happy with my 20kg Mantus :p
[running for cover]

V.
 
Well here goes.

The Ultra is lovely but stupidly expensive and if youre going to get a s/s anchor it sort of looks silly without s/s chain attached to it so the whole lot is going to be megabucks. I've tried the Bruce and I've tried the Delta in the Med and both have been less than secure in some types of seabed (mainly weed or soft sand) even a 60kg Delta.

I have had a 55kg Rocna on my boat now for 4 seasons and it has never let me down. Not once. Yes sure it looks like a pile of scaffold on the front of your boat but thats a small price to pay for peace of mind. In your case, I would be looking at the biggest anchor that will fit on your bow roller and I'm guessing that a 40kg Rocna will fit nicely. If youre going to fit a heavier anchor you might as well fit a heavier chain. I know some people will argue about it but IMHO the weight of the chain also contributes to the holding performance of the anchor. So you could look at fitting the max size of chain that your anchor windlass can take and that will probably mean a change of gypsy. Also you may want to consider the length of chain you carry. IMHO about 100m is about right for a Med cruising boat

Lastly, if youre going to increase the weight of anchor and chain, you need to ensure that your windlass is in good shape and properly secured to the deck
 
We are a bit limited .Had no problems what so ever thank God .


With the S/Sker I naively changed from one brand to another ( no Bruce involved ) and regretted it as the shank L did not quite mate with housing .

Is there anything you are looking to address ?

fwiw many bays / anchorages around Corsica / Elba / Sardinia have nice sandy bottoms .Even round where we are currently are ( Loano ) there’s no weed it’s all sand .
But I never had any problems with the Bruce anyhow up and the down the CdA coast .
 
Deleted User said:
Well here goes.

The Ultra is lovely but stupidly expensive and if youre going to get a s/s anchor it sort of looks silly without s/s chain attached to it so the whole lot is going to be megabucks. I've tried the Bruce and I've tried the Delta in the Med and both have been less than secure in some types of seabed (mainly weed or soft sand) even a 60kg Delta.

I have had a 55kg Rocna on my boat now for 4 seasons and it has never let me down. Not once. Yes sure it looks like a pile of scaffold on the front of your boat but thats a small price to pay for peace of mind. In your case, I would be looking at the biggest anchor that will fit on your bow roller and I'm guessing that a 40kg Rocna will fit nicely. If youre going to fit a heavier anchor you might as well fit a heavier chain. I know some people will argue about it but IMHO the weight of the chain also contributes to the holding performance of the anchor. So you could look at fitting the max size of chain that your anchor windlass can take and that will probably mean a change of gypsy. Also you may want to consider the length of chain you carry. IMHO about 100m is about right for a Med cruising boat

Lastly, if youre going to increase the weight of anchor and chain, you need to ensure that your windlass is in good shape and properly secured to the deck
Click to expand...

Maybe you would like to expand on your theory that the OP should replace his 30kg Bruce, with a 40kg Rocna? ?
 
NormanS said:
Maybe you would like to expand on your theory that the OP should replace his 30kg Bruce, with a 40kg Rocna? ?
Click to expand...
Markc's boat is a Ferretti. I've had 3 Ferrettis in a row. They all come as standard with a Bruce anchor which, IMHO, is undersized given the windage that flybridge boats like the Ferretti have and the resulting load that places on the anchor. They're fine for a lunchtime stop but undersized for peace of mind during a night at anchor. Secondly, my personal experience with those Bruce anchors in the Med is that they work well in stiff clay and dense sand as found in some Med anchorages but in weedy bottoms as found in many Med anchorages, they have difficulty penetrating the weed to the seabed below. Also they dont seem to hold well in soft sand

Because of this experience, on all 3 of my Ferrettis I upgraded the standard Bruce to a heavier Delta which certainly worked better in terms of penetrating weed. However, in soft sand, the Delta seems to do what its type suggests which is plough through the sand and not hold. On my current boat, I changed the standard fit 40kg Bruce for a 60kg Delta immediately when I bought the boat thinking that a 60kg anchor was heavy enough to hold in any conditions. I was wrong. That 60kg Delta dragged 3 times in 2 seasons in soft sand both in N Sardinia and S Sardinia, once overnight when had the wind been in a different direction, we would have ended up on the rocks

Those experiences worried me as we spend a number of nights every season at anchor so I decided to look at replacing the Delta with a 'modern' design of anchor. I rejected the Ultra because of cost and started talking to Rocna who were helpful in terms of providing detailed dimensions so I decided to give their 55kg model a try, more in hope than expectation I have to say. That was back in 2015 and the Rocna has performed faultlessly everywhere we've been since which has included N and S Sardinia, Corsica, Elba, Ligurian coastline and SoF.

I can only speak as I find. I'm not claiming that the Rocna is the best anchor on the market only that, for me, the Rocna has performed better than the Delta and Bruce and yes I know about Rocna's quality issues when they moved production to China
 
I also hate ploughs, but there was talk recently that Delta are making a new anchor that will be the best ever. An Ultra is probably the best on the market at the moment but the (necessary ) swivel is £500 on its own!
I have a Rocna (after taking the advice of Mike) and i love it. As long as I set it I know it will hold. Go to Rocna’s website and download the size anchor you want, glue it to some cardboard and then try it on your roller. Remember the Rocna is very sharp so make sure it clears the gelcote.
I’m with Mike on the heaviest anchor possible but the experts on PBO disagree. They think an aluminium anchor is just as good
 
I changed to a 55kg Rocna about the same time as Deleted User
Like him, it has never let me down - sleep much better knowing I have a working anchor rather than that Delta rubbish that never worked properly for us.
Go for the Rocna - they say that weight for weight you would be upgrading so a 40kg Rocna will give you lots of trouble free sleep.
 
Bouba said:
there was talk recently that Delta are making a new anchor that will be the best ever
Click to expand...
Is it possibly what Lewmar called the "Epsilon" anchor?
It's now available, and looks somewhat similar to the Ultra, judging from some pics.
But could be more interesting, if nothing else because available also in galvanized steel.
I've yet to read any feedbacks on that, though.
If anyone knows better, I'd be curious to hear about it.
 
MapisM said:
Is it possibly what Lewmar called the "Epsilon" anchor?
It's now available, and looks somewhat similar to the Ultra, judging from some pics.
But could be more interesting, if nothing else because available also in galvanized steel.
I've yet to read any feedbacks on that, though.
If anyone knows better, I'd be curious to hear about it.
Click to expand...
It does appear to be a new trend that the more holes you have in your anchor the better
 
+ 1 for Rocna.

I have a 55kg one on my Sq 65 and it holds well. As has been said earlier, one of the negatives of the Bruce is the difficulty with which it penetrates the seabed when anything other than soft sand. The Rocha has a sharp fluke which I’ve found gets into most types of seabed. I like Deltas too and had a 40kg one on my Sq 58 which never let me down either!

Chain size is every bit as important as anchor size, though harder to change as the gypsy on the windlass would need altering if one was to go up a size. When I specced my Sq 65 I got BUK to upgrade from the OEM 10mm to 12mm - an increase in weight of over 70%, of course. So a meaningful improvement in the amount of ‘ballast’ on the seabed keeping you in position!
 
markc said:
Apologies for opening up the perennial 'which anchor?' debate, but I'm thinking of changing mine. I currently have a 30kg Bruce (handbook says it came with 25kg, not sure when it was upgraded). Truth is over the years I haven't heard great reports of the Bruce holding well so I would like to change it. My current favourite is the Rocna, but would appreciate hearing anyone's direct experience with this or any of the alternatives. I have seen the Ultra, but don't intend to spend £3.5k on an anchor, more like around the £1k mark. Also not sure if I should be looking at the 33kg or 40kg Rocna

There may be some considerations about fit, so here's the current set-up...


View attachment 84706
Click to expand...
Mark, in your picture your mooring doesn’t look secure. First the rope looks undersized, second (and I could be wrong but..) it looks like a single line threaded through a chain link. The constant movement of the boat could saw this rope in half. Of course it might just be a lunch stop on a nice day?
 
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