Proper ground tackle for long island sound and new england

[Cruisingdad]

I have no doubt Craig makes a fine product, but I have never used it. I have used the following and place them in my order of preferce:

Delta. Great in most bottoms. Will set where other anchors will not. Resets on tide shift pretty well. Expense is pretty good. Fits on a roller pretty good.

Danforth style. Pretty good in most bottoms, except sand. Not real good in sand and sometimes has trouble setting in mud. Anchor roller, pretty good. Strength, pretty good. Expense, really good. Fortress breaks down and will stowe well.

CQR. Good on first set. Sand, ok. Anchor roller, ok. Strength to hold, ok. Expense, sucks. Questionable reset.

Mushroom Anchor. Sucks in everything above, but is good as a paper weight so I put it ahead of the Claw.

Claw Anchor. On the anchor roller, sucks. Expense, sucks. In sand, really sucks. Reset, sucks. Paper weight, sucks... it tears up the papers. As a vacuum cleaner, it would seem it sucks bad enough to replace it, but it sucked at that too.

- CD

[christyleigh]

Originally Posted by Cruisingdad

Claw Anchor. On the anchor roller, sucks. Expense, sucks. In sand, really sucks. Reset, sucks. Paper weight, sucks... it tears up the papers. As a vacuum cleaner, it would seem it sucks bad enough to replace it, but it sucked at that too.
- CD

Hey CD ..... Finally something we dis-agree 100% on Oh well... just have to get you set up with some anchor setting training..... Duckin and Runnin.....

[Cruisingdad]

Christy,

What? You got it to work as a Vacuum Cleaner? I never could preperly position the shank. Becuase, other than as a vacuum cleaner, it is worthless!! (smile) Glad it worked for you.

- CD

[ebs001]

Because of Craig's posts I will never buy a Rocna. My CQR has held fine everytime and even in 65 mph winds. My friend's Delta dragged on reset a number of times and he often had problems on initial sets. I think real life experience is sometimes more reliable than artificially set up tests.

[sailingdog]

Ebs-

Just remember, even the best anchor, improperly set, is not going to hold worth a damn... User skill and experience counts for quite a bit too.

[AlainPOIRAUD]

Originally Posted by Westsail32

I would consider adding a Bruce anchor in replacement of your smaller CQR. The Bruce seems to do well in many situations and can give you holding where the CQR may fail. .

Well, except that it is nearly impossible to find a genuine Bruce to sell, as Bruce went out of the anchor market..

As usual, I fully agree with Craig’s comments “. I would upgrade the anchor to a new generation design of similar weight”

Originally Posted by SailingDog

Craig - who is relentless in his pursuit to market his Rocna anchor on sailing BBs - True, it does... Alain is just as bad...

Sorry Sailing dog, but please tell me in which forum you see any post from me promoting one of the anchors I have designed??

Do I sign all my posts with: Alain POIRAUD – Spade Anchor – www.spade-anchor.com ?? Do I continuously post any link to any page of the Spade Web page??

As I’ve sold the Spade company, I do not have any reason to make any promotion for a product which will not make one single penny .

Go back to my posts and you will see, that they all fight against salesmen who are relentless in their pursuit to market their anchors.. and they do not promote any anchor brand

Alain
www.Idonotsellanyanchor.com

[camaraderie]

I agree Alain...you do NOT promote the Spade.
You do as you say always counter any post by Craig which makes it doubly tiresome since when Tweedledum appears it is only a matter of time till we hear from Tweedledee. Thank god I don't have to moderate this AGAIN!

[labatt]

Oh man.. I'm so tempted to post a "Which anchor is best for a Macgregor?" question!!!!!!

[jasonr575]

Arguing about promotion is not what i asked for so lets please stay on the subject but a good point was made, there may be some bias there. Non the less he did provide some info to me which i appreciate.
Sounds to me that people say because of a cqr's design it is not a good anchor, but the people who have had experience with is have great things to say about it.
A bruce anchor seems to be a good one to have on board. what size is suggested for the boat? (look at first post for boat details). Also since they are not in business any more what is a comparable brand/model?
I now have questions about chain but will make another thread as i feel that may be appropriate. Anyone with advise please look for it.
My intentions now are to keep the 45 cqr and fortress 55 (hope everyone realizes the number is not the weight of the anchor). i intend on increasing my chain length by at least 30 ft if not more. Will search for a bruce or similar anchor (depends on what info i recieve after this post)

Jason

[Newport41]

Jason,
We have a 45Lbs Bruce and I've used them on previous boats with great results. They set easily and hold well. In soft mud or sand your fortress is probably a better option but that's just an opinion. We have a very large fortress style anchor as our storm anchor and a bruce for daily coastal cruising. I've also found that you can find a bruce used fairly easily if you know where to look. I think you'll find that more chain is going to help with any anchor. I'm not sure if anyone told why you want more chain or if you've figured out the concept on your own but if you don't understand why you need more chain you should ask. I would also say 50ft would be a minimum amount of chain for a 38ft monohull like yours. Our entire rode is chain which we use with a high strech nylon snubber. I doubt our anchor has ever been pulled any direction but horizontaly due to the weight fo the chain. Having said that, all chain rode is heavy, expensive, and totally unneccessary. What can I say, it came that way. And by all chain I mean 250 ft so in many anchorages we don't get to the nylon rode.
Some mistakes I see made all too often:
1)People buy "high strength low weight chain", the whole point of chain is that it's heavy. Buy the cheap heavy stuff
2)People are to worried about weight. This I can understand, so maybe only get 50ft of chain but you should put up with the extra 10lbs to get a slightly bigger anchor than is recommended
3)People neglect to get a windlass due to cost. Get a manual one. They're cheap adn it could save your boat some day, I can think of dozens of times that it could be important.
4)When people say back down on your anchor once it's set, really back down on it hard, especially if you're expecting a blow. If it won't hold, try the fortress. Better to find out on your own terms.
5)Think about the tides, if you set a scope of 6:1 at low tide it might be a lot less at high tide (or break free in the Bay of Fundy). Remeber, the idea is to pull horizontaly on the anchor, thus the need for more heavy chain.