anchors

[Pangaea]

Short and sweet,
I also have all the popular anchors except the delta and I have hung on my bruce 33 (12,000 disp) more than once
in near gale with gale gusts. (20'' of 3/8 G3)
Praise be to bruce. And sleep well!

Dennis L.

[tsenator]

I have had very good luck with the CQR on my old boat.(Some good storms blew through and it held). I now have the SPADE about 1 1/2 years and I am happy with it. It is like an inverted Delta/CQR so that its face is concave as opposed to convex. So instead of "plowing" through like a Delta/CQR it "scoops" up the bottom like a Bruce or Max. The one similarities with the Delta/CQR is that it still has a pointy tip (that is heavily weighted I might add). Which will tend to dig in through a hard bottom or weeds better that most anchors

[VIEXILE]

Try a barnicle anchor. You''ll never go back....

[Sailmc]

I have used a Bruce for many years and was well satified with it until I tried to anchor in weedy or grassy bottoms. It was very difficlt to get the Bruce to penetrate through the weeds. I replaced it with a Delta and have had excelent luck with it. It sets as fast as a Bruce but hold like a CQR. I have used CQR''s on charter boats in the past and have had trouble setting them in srtong winds. The Plow head tends to **** to the side if it gets draged across the bottom at the speeds encountered in strong winds. Once they are in they are in for good though. The Delta seems to combine the best attributes of both anchors.

[EscapeArtist]

Here in Long Island Sound, nearly every boat has some kind of plow-type anchor hanging on the bow. That''s because even the sand bottoms are very hard here, so a heavy anchor with a penetrating point is necessary.

The CQR seems to be the most popular LI Sound anchor. I have the similar Delta myself, which I''ve never even had to reset in three seasons of use.

However, sailors in the Chesapeake Bay would probably be disappointed by CQRs and Deltas dragging in the softer bottoms there.

So, I don''t think that there''s any anchor that is more reliable than another, except in a limited context. I have read a couple of anchor trials ("hook-offs?"), one performed by West Marine, but anyone who understands statistics would consider their experimental designs pretty pathetic and their data inconclusive.

[Pangaea]

Every bodys talking anchors... and thats cool but how about stating the length and displacement of your boat. And mabey mention the size(lb) of the anchors your using. What about depth, scope, chain size and length? If somone says their CQR (or whatever) held in a storm, it doesn''t mean much if it turns out that in reality it was a 35LB CQR anchor with thirty feet of one half inch chain, eighty feet of rode in seven feet of water with a twenty foot day sailer.

Dennis

[DuaneIsing]

Dennis,

That''s an excellent point. There are many factors that go into effective ground tackle, and the anchor type is only one of them. Thanks for inserting that reality check in there.

Duane

[Pangaea]

Hi Duane,
I''m glad to be of any help to anyone.
Thanx,

Dennis

[halyardz]

I too have a bruce 33# but use the Delta or danforth for most light work. Dennis''s point about technique is spot on. Setting the hook is a bit of an art, then the science takes over. At times though, the bruce is a bit awkward to handle and for sure plows have key advantages.

[maxcontax]

I purchased two anchors for my Catalina 22 based on research from "Practical Sailor" and Fortress Anchors. It seems that fluke anchors set best in mud and sand, and plow anchors in harder stuff: I ended up with a 7.5 kg Bruce and a Fortress FX-11 (7 lbs) which are recommended for boats weighing 3x as much. The Bruce supposedly will re-set itself if a tidal flood or wind reversal shifts the boat 180 in the night. This after reading alot of accounts of dragged anchors from either being inappropriate or undersized. I also calculated a 3x safety factor on the rode components for wind force on a C-22 at 42 knots (800 lbs), and that included the strength of wet nylon vs dry (-15%), and the type of knot used to connect the rode. For what it''s worth.