Toothpick Anchor

[awol]

Was out sailing yesterday W4/5, sunshine. blue skies, ~8C in the shade and the Eberspacher behaving itself. For the lunch stop I used a folding grapnel that had been on the boat when I bought it together with about 3m of bathroom plug chain and a length of 12mm rope. I dropped it onto a patch of sand in about 4m, let out about 20m of string and proceeded to twitch throughout lunch. Surprise, not only did we stay put but I actually had to motor the thing out! Next time I may try the baby Danforth that also came with the boat.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Must have some concave surfaces on it then. Any rollbar?

 

[steve_cronin]

On my first "sea-going" vessel, the main anchor was one of those folding grapnels, a VERY big one but it always bit at first touch and held. It was one with flukes wider than the normal toothpicks and they were flared somewhat.

One wild night in Alderney, before it had mooring bouys, we stayed put whilst a collected raft of six boats tripped past us in the gloom to recruit even more members into their midnight pajama party!

Steve Cronin

 

[Bajansailor]

I have a small 2 lb. aluminium Viking anchor for our dinghy. It is almost 30 years old now, and is a predecessor of the Fortress. I decided to experiment with it one day...... this little anchor held (in soft sand, good holding) an 11m heavy steel yacht in shallow (2m) water on a rope cable (no chain) in 20 knots of wind quite happily.
I was impressed! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[bilbobaggins]

Aye, they don't make good holding the way they used to.......

/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif