Yngmar
Well-Known Member
Dived our anchor last night here in Preveza (north of the fishing harbour), as there was quite a bit of rattling around transmitting up the chain before it set. Wasn't fouled, but hadn't set deep, very hard ground.
Next to it was a big concrete mooring block (sadly the ring was rusted away or I could've used that) and a severely fouled plough type anchor, which I almost ignored, as they're usually old and rusty, but it looked big and some intact galvanizing peeked out at me.
So this morning we've salvaged it and I spent an hour with a claw hammer knocking the tubeworms off and evicting a few small crabs. Turns out it's a Kobra 25kg in good shape, so I think we might even find a place for that on the boat as backup. It folds down to reduce size a bit.
Now for the interesting bit (to me). From the fouling it must've been down there for maybe 2-3 years I would guess. The stainless was all shiny, no rust, no pitting. Even the bolt that keeps the fold-down shank in place, which was stamped A2-70 had no rust on it. This was in around 5m depth, just laying on the side (not dug in at all).
But the reason it was lost was the swivel. A design with a sex bolt (small bolt screwing into big bolt) on each end and a stainless allen bolt that was welded in for the swiveling part, like the leftmost design Vyv illustrates. The weld has cracked and the swivel bolt is loose, but still swiveling and not coming out. The jaws on both ends were bent open a bit and the barrel bolt on the chain end was gone - someone must've had a bad moment here when they dragged and then pulled up a chain with no anchor. Hope they had a spare!
More pictures of the failed swivel here.
Makes me glad we have a Kong (with the bolt Loctited in - and the bolt doesn't touch any moving parts).
Next to it was a big concrete mooring block (sadly the ring was rusted away or I could've used that) and a severely fouled plough type anchor, which I almost ignored, as they're usually old and rusty, but it looked big and some intact galvanizing peeked out at me.
So this morning we've salvaged it and I spent an hour with a claw hammer knocking the tubeworms off and evicting a few small crabs. Turns out it's a Kobra 25kg in good shape, so I think we might even find a place for that on the boat as backup. It folds down to reduce size a bit.
Now for the interesting bit (to me). From the fouling it must've been down there for maybe 2-3 years I would guess. The stainless was all shiny, no rust, no pitting. Even the bolt that keeps the fold-down shank in place, which was stamped A2-70 had no rust on it. This was in around 5m depth, just laying on the side (not dug in at all).
But the reason it was lost was the swivel. A design with a sex bolt (small bolt screwing into big bolt) on each end and a stainless allen bolt that was welded in for the swiveling part, like the leftmost design Vyv illustrates. The weld has cracked and the swivel bolt is loose, but still swiveling and not coming out. The jaws on both ends were bent open a bit and the barrel bolt on the chain end was gone - someone must've had a bad moment here when they dragged and then pulled up a chain with no anchor. Hope they had a spare!
More pictures of the failed swivel here.
Makes me glad we have a Kong (with the bolt Loctited in - and the bolt doesn't touch any moving parts).
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