Mantus Chain Hook

I read about these on a sailing/cruising form it looked good so I bought one last week, it arrived a couple of days ago.

Mantus Chain Hook | MantusAnchors

I have always used a plain chain grab hook which works fine on a single line snubber, but when I deploy it on a bridal seems like I need a couple of extra hands to keep if from falling off before I get the chain down and the hook properly loaded.
This fits my 5/16" chain well and takes some maneuvering and twisting to get it on and off the chain so I don't think it will be falling off yet not difficult to remove.
It looks good and strong but, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so we'll see how it works on the next trip out it looks like that will be, hopefully, the first week of March to Southwest Florida.
Steve W.

That hook looks like an interesting idea.

We use a bridle snubber with a slotted plate chain grab. Because we let our snubber way out---- usually some ten or twelve feet below the surface--- we attach the grabber plate in such a way that as soon as the loop of chain we let out to hang between the pulpit and the snubber grab is taken out and the rode is straightened out the grab plate falls off the chain on its own and hangs back under the forefoot out of the way while we get the anchor up.

The fact the Mantus hook would not do this would seem to make it unsuitable for what we do. But I'll have to think about that for awhile to see if we modified our retrieval process to pull the hook up to the pulpit and remove it first would work for us.

Interesting device. Never seen one before. Thanks for the link.

Looks like a great device. I was looking for something like this when I found the Shockle. It works well for the relatively calm waters of the California Delta. If I didn't already have one of these, I'd buy the Mantus Chain Hook.

Shockles Anchor Snubber at Work - YouTube

I'm rather intrigued by that mantus anchor, Marin. It looks like a Rocna knock-off, but does it have a hinged shank, a la a CQR...?

Most old sail boat snap shakels will take most chain anchor spring loads.

To get the smooth ride 25 ft of 1/4 or 3/8 will usually do the job , and the snap shakel will take 5000lbs , far above what the springy line will stand.

Should the line go overboard it should be too short to reach the prop.

We use one of these: Ultra Chain Grab I don't really understand why it doesn't fall off when we're getting set up but it doesn't and it still comes off relatively easily when we retrieve.

Peter B said:

I'm rather intrigued by that mantus anchor, Marin. It looks like a Rocna knock-off, but does it have a hinged shank, a la a CQR...?

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No, there is no mention of the shank being hinged in their website blurb. The entire anchor is bolted together, however. Shank bolted to the fluke, roll bar bolted to the fluke, etc. So it can be taken apart and stowed.

The only feature I find potentially beneficial is the two extensions that the rollbar bolts to. This in theory would increase the sideways "knife down into the bottom" leverage applied to the fluke. This is the purpose of the two "skid plates" that Peter Smith added to the basic Bugel design when he created his anchor. I don't know if the two extensions on the Mantus anchor help, hurt, or make no difference to the overall performance of the anchor.

But given the excellent performance of all the rollbar anchors I don't see at first glance any reason why the Mantus would be in different in this respect. Don't know the effect bolt-together assembly has on an anchor like this.

Marin said:

That hook looks like an interesting idea.

We use a bridle snubber with a slotted plate chain grab. Because we let our snubber way out---- usually some ten or twelve feet below the surface--- we attach the grabber plate in such a way that as soon as the loop of chain we let out to hang between the pulpit and the snubber grab is taken out and the rode is straightened out the grab plate falls off the chain on its own and hangs back under the forefoot out of the way while we get the anchor up..

Click to expand...

What he said... Homemade bronze plate.

bobofthenorth said:

We use one of these: Ultra Chain Grab I don't really understand why it doesn't fall off when we're getting set up but it doesn't and it still comes off relatively easily when we retrieve.

Click to expand...

Nice item. The "bear claw" hook I use looks to impose an uneven load on the chain. Hinz (Complete Book of Anchoring..) disapproves it for that reason. No one wants a hole in their chain.
A homemade one, as suggested by Brooksie, should be ok.