The heaviest anchor one man can handle

D,
I'd take both offers if I were you. There's quite a variety of bottoms around Scottish waters and rock and kelp can be completely impenetrable to anything but a Fisherman's, but other places it won't be worth lifting over the rail for the grip it will give. Luckily the Centaur has some breadth to the foredeck, so you should be able to adopt a decent lifting posture! My own foredeck is so narrow, it's like walking down one of those barely buoyant finger pontoons - scary.

Rob.
 
I picked this up (literally) at Newtown, IoW a couple of seasons ago...had to be well over 70lb. It was just lying about, (unlikely to be stolen I s'pose)...not the only one, either...

View attachment 40313

Sorry, rotten photo. Trendy trainers & shorts though! :o

It wasn't impossibly heavy, but I'll be happy if I never have to lift such a thing again. I'm not certain it would improve a Centaur's trim though.
 
Neil_Y said:
Its the depth of water and length/weight of chain that makes it hard. Steep shores test your strength more than a heavy anchor. One anchorage we struggled to get the anchor up with no windlass and had to take the load back to a genoa winch (using a rolling hitch and rope)
Click to expand...

+1.

I have 50+ metres of chain, and it outweighs the anchor manyfold. The one time I've had it all out it took two of us to haul it in without a winch - because we were in 20 metres of water, we were effectively lifting 20 metres of chain at a time. Yes, I know that's not enough scope, but that's another story. My crew was a big lad, and even so we were both blowing a bit when it was in. Since then I've installed a manual winch - slow but sure.
 
dancrane said:
I picked this up (literally) at Newtown, IoW a couple of seasons ago...had to be well over 70lb. It was just lying about, (unlikely to be stolen I s'pose)...not the only one, either...


Sorry, rotten photo. Trendy trainers & shorts though! :o

It wasn't impossibly heavy, but I'll be happy if I never have to lift such a thing again. I'm not certain it would improve a Centaur's trim though.
Click to expand...

Ah, so that's where my mooring anchor disappeared to!
 
Big old thing, wasn't it? Thinking back, I've handled 35 kilo (77lb) cement sacks in the last ten years, and the anchor was far heavier than those felt. A borderline back-buster.

It was badly bent...though not beyond the abilities of a blacksmith to repair, I'd think. I'm just surprised the metal-thieves hadn't backed a mini-van down the Newtown causeways.
 
It's "badly" bent so that nothing can catch on the upper fluke. Two anchors laid out, with a ground chain connecting them, and a riser chain up to a buoy, from the centre of the ground chain. Standard practice in lots of places.
 
Jimmy Green's tech articles gives the following:- (slightly jumbled, apologies)

Maximum Boat Length 6 metre 8 metre 10 metre 12 metre 14 metre 16 metre
Maximum Boat Length Dayboat 20 feet 26 feet 33 feet 40 feet 46 feet 52 feet
Delta 4kg 4kg 6kg 10kg 16kg 20kg 25kg
Kobra 2kg 4kg 6kg 8kg 10kg 14kg 16kg
Lewmar Claw 2kg 5kg 7kg 10kg 15kg
Trefoil [folding claw] 5kg 7kg 10kg
Plough 7kg 9kg 15kg
Danforth type 4kg 6kg 10kg 14kg
Brittany 2/3.5kg 6kg 10kg 14kg 16kg
Fisherman 4kg 6kg 12kg 16kg 25kg
Folding Stock 5kg 5kg 10kg 15kg 25kg
Guardian [aluminium] G5 G7 G11 G16 G23 G37 G55
Fortress [aluminium] - FX7 FX7 FX11 FX16 FX23 FX37

10k Danforth, 12k fisherman, doesn't mention Bruce but Lewmar Claw 10k. All of these are easily manageable by one reasonable fit person on their own but if you have substantial amounts of chain attached (and deployed), the weight increases dramatically which is why windlasses are so popular. Manual ones are cheap and reliable but slow so would suit you. (That sounds insulting but not meant that way)

Link to JG http://www.jimmygreen.co.uk/p/technical/chandlery-technical-articles/anchor-size-guide
 
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I wouldn't want to say anything controversial on an anchor thread(!), but given a certain weight you can lift, wouldn't you get more holding with a lighter anchor and more chain?
 
Dylan, FWIW

SR has a 35lb CQR & 90' of 3/8ths chain and it is manageable on the foredeck with care (I am 67 & about 5'10" and 13.5 st -ish) I have a manual foredeck windlass (OE) but it is so slow I usually lift the hook manually. The hardest is in strong winds & when pitching. I lift on the down & then latch the chain onto the windlass cogs (it may be worth you getting a chain hook for this function) as the boat lifts, it pulls in the chain so I can gather the slack on the down stroke.

I find that I must not try using my back muscles they are nowhere near strong enough. I have to keep my back straight & bend my knees (your thigh muscles are probably the strongest you have) so simply gathering the slack & then straightening the knees will gain you a foot or so of chain at time.
 
What you want is a nice Fortress anchor - madeof aluminium so very light, unfortunately I sold the one I had which would have fitted a Centaur. Otherwise go for a Manson which works unlike the cqr copy awhich was on my boat originally. I use a 25lb Manson on my 33'.
 
Ok I like Danforths and would choose first every time.. I have fortress cause a Danforth on my 35' boat would be bloody heavy with no windlass..

My second Anchor when I save pennies or go so far as to consider it necessary will be A Knox.

About the same weight as a fortress but claims to be a NG Anchor
http://www.knoxanchors.com/
Not tried one but it looks the job...
 
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