Spade V Oceane Anchors

Escapeii

Escapeii

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I'm looking to buy either a Spade or Oceane anchor. Does anyone know of a report that might point out the relative advantages, or have personal experience of them?
There is a significant price difference between the two and apart from the Spade being in 2 parts I cannot see any great difference.
Cheers

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I think you'll find the Oceane was offered by the designerso as to provide a similar anchor at a better price. He posts on here sometimes as 'hylas', so you could ask him for yourself.

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I don't have one and am not recommending the design, merely giving the poster the info. I thought I read an article in one of the mags to the effect that the parted spade was caused by a re-used nyloc? Or am I dreaming?

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Delta as alternative

I have a 16kg steel Spade 80 but I have gone back to using a 16 kg Delta because I have found it sets first time more often than the Spade did. From reading the results of many tests, I have come to the opinion that although the Delta does not give very high resistance, it does give consistently good and reliable results in a wide range of bottoms. It is also good at re-setting after breaking out; the Spade tends to have a ball of mud on its fluke which I think is likely to inhibit re-setting. The problem bottoms in Scotland are very soupy mud near the mouths of streams and also thick kelp. The Delta generally copes quite well with these. I have read that the Spade is very good for thin sand over coral – unfortunately not a problem in northern Europe. I now keep the Spade as a spare anchor for which it is excellent at it comes apart and takes up much less space.

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"Hylas is keeping his head down -- Why?"

It's buried in the sand.

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Re: Delta as alternative

Don't forget to use a new nyloc every time you reassemble the Spade.

I find mine excellent in kelp - better than anything else I've used.

- Nick

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Re: Delta as alternative

Yes, I must get a spare nyloc. Interested to hear that you find the Spade good in kelp; I have not tried it for that.

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Re: Spade mud ball reset worries

While planning my Summer cruise in the shower this morning part of this thread flashed back to me and I felt compelled to resurrect it briefly . . .

I have also retrieved the Spade with a ball of mud on the fluke. However, I can't see this as a cause for anything but confidence. If the fluke is still embedded in part of the seabed and you have had to pull up aforesaid part of seabed when retrieving the anchor, then essentially the anchor has not 'broken out' of the seabed cleanly even with a direct upward pull. To me this indicates that the anchor has very high holding power in this type of bottom and is most unlikely to break out. If it did break out under a horizontal or near horizontal pull then I see no reason to suppose it would have this ball of mud on it.

OK, now shoot me down :-) - It will have to be a strong argument for me to abandon my trusty Spade however.

As for Hylas keeping his head down - he does not strike me as a man who is usually backward in coming forward. I think he is probably out of comms range - he said he was off to the Cape Verdes and Brazil last I heard.


- Nick



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Re: Spade mud ball reset worries

I wouldn’t want you to abandon your trusty Spade! I don’t think there is a perfect anchor and I am sure that the Spade is in the premier league of anchors. According to Prof Knox’s tests it in the group of anchors (e.g. Delta, Spade, Bruce) which are stable and do not tend to spiral out of the seabed when ploughing slowly through it when under heavy load in gusts.

In the Sailing Today anchor test in the December ’03 issue the 15 kg Spade broke out of gritty mud with a 6x scope at a load of 270 kg. “Having broken out, though, it seemed reluctant to re-set. When we pulled it up, it was obvious why: it had lived up to its name by digging up a huge ball of mud, which couldn’t slip off the hollowed surface as it would from a more conventional plough anchor.” The 10 kg Delta broke out at 525 kg and re-set very easily.

This is only one test but the bottom is typical of what I usually anchor in and I have had only good experiences with the Delta for 5 years so I am favourably disposed towards it at the moment! I bought the Spade last season because in some tests it has held very high loads; I have not used it much so I cannot speak from a position of experience with the Spade.

Good sailing, and I will look out for Fairwinds if we are near Oban this summer. Hope to go up the outside of Mull if the weather is settled.


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I see he's gone very quiet since that spade anchor failed in Australia.

Hi Jacket..

I have to apologize.. if I was quiet, this is only because I was enjoying quite remote anchorages (on my Océane anchor) in the Baia de Todos os Santos.. (Brazil), places where there is absolutely no Cyber cafe.. I'm back in Salvador for a few days now before heading towards Rio..

As you're talking about the grounding of "S/Y Deep Blue" (not in Australia, but in New Zealand), I would like to say a few words about this accident..

How would it be possible to explain that the grounding has been caused by the failure of a bolt designed to resist a pull of 1.5 tons when:
- With nearly no wind.. or wind less than 10 knots, (official report) the pulling force was not enough to pull the 10 meters of 10 mm chain straight.. (very easy to prove with mathematical formulaes..) that means that it was absolutely NO ACTION of the mooring line to the anchor.. and then it is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE for any nut to unscrew itself..
- It was neither low or deep alarm set on the Deep sounder, nor GPS alarm.
- the scope (2.88/ 1) was absolutely not enough with a mixed line.. it should have been at least 5/1 or better 7/1.. again a proof of poor seamanship
- - etc..
For me it is clear that the owner of S/Y Deep Blue has grounded his boat for some unknow reasons and has tried to accuse his SPADE anchor. and the failure of the bolt has never been proved.

Other anchors have also failed.. The very well known French sailor Bernard Moitessier has loosed his boat "Josua" when his two CQR have dragged.. and still a lot of sailors are using it..

Now talking about the initial question:

"I'm looking to buy either a Spade or Oceane anchor. Does anyone know of a report that might point out the relative advantages, or have personal experience of them?
There is a significant price difference between the two and apart from the Spade being in 2 parts I cannot see any great difference."


We received quite often the same comments from potential buyers of the SPADE.. "Oh!.. I'm dreaming of having one... BUT! it is too expensive.."
That's why, mostly for boat manufacturers, charter companies and owners of small boats who doesn't anchor very often.. we have developped a cheaper version of the Spade ( about only 40 % of the price of the Spade, one of the cheapest of the market..)

When I have designed the SPADE, I've tried to have the best characteristics.. regardless of the price, for example: the shank is removable for an easy storage, the section of the shank is hollow for a strong resistance but a ligth weigth... (very expensive to manufacture..)

The manufacturing of the Oceane is much more simple, an this explain why the cost is much lower.. the shank is welded on the blade, and build of a single steel plate cut by plasma.. like all our competitors..

But the Océane has also some "NEW" concepts (patented) for example, the shank is welded, not at the back part of the blade, like all our competitors, but onto the anchor's tip.. this will not change anything on the holding angle, but first the shank will reinforce the tip of the anchor (the most sollicited part) and there is very few risks that the tip will bend... also the weight of the shank, will replace the balast that you have on the tip of most anchors..

This difference of weight is then transformed into SURFACE.. and as holding is related to the surface (and not to the weight) the Océane has BY FAR much more holding than any competitive anchor..

Just to give you a comparison, the 15 kg SPADE has a blade surface area of 800 sq cm when the 16 kg Océane has a blade surface area of 1540 sq cm.. Or, for about the same weight.. the Océane anchor has more than twice the holding of the SPADE.. (but the 800 sq cm SPADE has nearly the same holding than the 8 kg Océane (910 sq cm) )

The Océane anchor is a cheap version of the SPADE but this deoesn't mean that it is a low quality version of it..

Yes, you can qualify the look as: Awfull, funny, strange, uggly... just because this is not the look you are used to.. but be sure that in less than 20 years (protection time of the patents) nearly all anchors will have this look..

The Océane anchor is a different anchor and this is why it has also a different look.. ?



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