Fortress Aluminum anchors?

[deniseO30]

Oh I picked one up yesterday at the store, it's really light! Should I buy it?? good bad? Same as a danforth otherwise?

I've pretty much assumed I need/want a 14lb plow by lewmar. The danforth on my boat is really big and heavy. I mean really. The chain doesn't help I know. Nope.. still dont' have a windlass.

[btrayfors]

Denise,

The Fortress is an excellent anchor which is well suited to cruising grounds where the bottom is clay, mud, or dense sand. It is not well suited for use in weeds, rocks, or coral bottoms.

After over four decades (yep, 40+ years) of using Danforth Hi-Tensile anchors successfully in the Chesapeake Bay area, I recently swapped the Danforth on my bow for a Fortress FX-37. This is slightly oversized for my boat, but I wanted the extra security and, frankly, I wanted to compare its performance with my extensive experience with Danforths. When this baby sets, you KNOW it....it's as if your anchor rode -- mine is all chain -- is tied to a telephone pole!

The Fortress anchors have been around quite awhile and have done extremely well in a number of anchoring tests. They are easy to carry and they have one feature which is great in soft mud: the fluke angle can be increased, which provides additional holding power.

However, they have one drawback, just like the Danforth's: if you reverse the pull on them, they can break out. How much of a problem this would be depends, again, on your cruising grounds and your experience and practice. If you set your anchor well in the direction of the anticipated maximum pull, you're very likely to stay put with a Fortress, while many other anchors might drag.

Some of the newer designs are better in resetting themselves if the direction of pull radically changes. They are also reported to be very good anchors for a variety of bottom conditions. Chief among these seem to be the Spade, the Rocna, the Manson Supreme, and a few others.

Bill

[sailaway21]

The Fortress comes out highly rated in virtually every anchor test conducted; it's usually the tops of the Danforth style anchors. And it's light weight does not appear to be an impediment to it's holding power or setting, equipped with the proper rode. There's some concern with all danforth style anchors setting in sea grasses where that is an issue for certain sailors. I'd wager that 75% of sailnet members own a Fortress for one use or another.

[trantor12020]

Once I anchored off an island in Anambas. To port is 8ft of water with sand and coral heads, and falling of to starboard is 40-60 ft slope. I set a Fortress FX-11 to starboard and tie it to stern to prevent boat swinging to shallow waters. At bow I uses a regular Danforth.
When the FX-11 sets in, it didn't bulge through the night. Real solid holding power.

[camaraderie]

Ditto the recommendations. I kept one as a secondary storm anchor. If you are in reversing currents I would say consider something else but otherise you should be well pleased especially in mud bottoms.

[deniseO30]

thanks guys! You have helped make that decision!

[MedSailor]

I've spent just under 100nights to a fortress FX-16 on my 12,000lb high windage 31ft sloop in the PNW waters. Great little anchor. It's not perfect but it is fantastic for certain applications.

I used it as my primary as I was pulling everything up by hand and wanted as much chain (to reduce swinging) as possible. Rode out a wind storm in an unprotected anchorage with 5ft swells and it never budged.

I have had trouble setting it before and here in the PNW it's usually sand, mud or rocks and I never tried it in the rocks. According to fortress it can be quite easily set on short scope and then scope is added after initial set.

I also liked that since it's light you can go several sized up (if your budget allows) without much problem.

Also, the coast guard is using them on their 40 and 60ft patrol boats as their primary anchor backed up with 10ft of chain and lots of rope.

IMHO it's been around long enough and tested enough to qualify as on of the "old reliable" crowd. Second to none as a stern or secondary anchor and good as a primary if sand/mud are in your future. Best anchor around if you have to haul up everything by hand. Having said all that I prefer a 66lb genuine Bruce for my primary as I figure it will do better in a multitude of bottoms sets/resets fast and does not foul. My secondary (which, even oversized for a 41ft boat can be pulled up by hand) is a FX-37.

MedSailor

[Maine Sail]

Originally Posted by deniseO30

Oh I picked one up yesterday at the store, it's really light! Should I buy it?? good bad? Same as a danforth otherwise?

The Fortress is a much better performing anchor that the Danforth BUT they do not like wind or tide shifts and can un-set themselves in the middle of the night especially on calm wind shifts where the chain fouls the flukes. If you don't ever deal with wind or tide shifts a Fortress is a great anchor. I use one as my dedicated stern anchor as I can guarantee a direct line pull and no directional changes a the anchor..

Originally Posted by deniseO30

I've pretty much assumed I need/want a 14lb plow by lewmar. The danforth on my boat is really big and heavy. I mean really. The chain doesn't help I know. Nope.. still dont' have a windlass.

Sorry a 14lb plow is a BAD choice for a 30 footer!!!! Way to light!!!! You want at least a 25 pounder minimum... I dragged a well set 25 CQR with a Catalina 30 more than once so my preference for plows is go at LEAST one size larger than the recommendation..


Use your boat to haul the anchor!!

By this I mean put your boat in gear for a short blast and get it moving towards the direction of the anchor. As it moves towards it simply haul in the rode. As you get close to being directly over the anchor snub the rode on the cleat and let the forward momentum of the vessel rip the anchor out of the bottom. Once the anchor has been broken free simply haul up the ten or 15 feet or anchor weight... Easy!!!! I own a windlass but never use it as I find this method faster and much easier... Oh and I manage the helm and the anchor setting and retrieval by myself so this does not even need to be a two person job....


Using this method you are only actually lifting the anchor & ten feet of chain weight the distance from the bow to the bottom. Many people make the mistake of "pulling the boat" to the anchor then by the time they get the boat to the anchor they are so tired they can't even lift a 35 pound anchor off the bottom...

[SEMIJim]

Denise,

Looking at the WM/SAIL anchor tests from back in 2006, it doesn't look like the Fortress performs all that well, relatively speaking. Plus, as helekai36 mentions: I'd be concerned about its not re-setting on wind shifts. As somebody else put it: If I'm going to sleep on the hook, I want to be reasonably assured that our boat is going to be w/in the rode's length of where we put her when we hit the bunks .

The choice for our 30' Pearson is going to be a 10 kg. (22 lb.) Delta, as the "best" compromise between a variety of competing factors. We'll have the 15 lb. Danforth that's already on the boat for a 2nd/backup anchor.

Jim

[beej67]

Use your boat to haul the anchor!!

By this I mean put your boat in gear for a short blast and get it moving towards the direction of the anchor. As it moves towards it simply haul in the rode. As you get close to being directly over the anchor snub the rode on the cleat and let the forward momentum of the vessel rip the anchor out of the bottom. Once the anchor has been broken free simply haul up the ten or 15 feet or anchor weight... Easy!!!!

Easy, The Admiral and I do it all the time, but beware, this is a 2 man job. Teach your wife (or other deckhand respectively) some hand signals and have someone at the tiller. Do NOT risk steaming over your rode, because that will make for a very bad day.