Fisherman anchor

I have an old fisherman anchor that I got when I bought an old sailboat years ago . Where are these kind of anchors used ? The sailboat came from the northeast.

Are you talking about a "Yachtman's Anchor" like the one you can see in this skiff?

Some people call Danforth style anchors "Fisherman's" anchors.

Yes just like that but maybe larger

A fisherman anchor is used in stony, hard mud , grassy and gravel bottom. They need to be heavier than a Danforth and are more prone to foul with current and wind changes. I have one that I use when my Danforth won't set. Unless it has a large fluke area, it won't hold well in loose sand or mud.
And if that's not what you meant....
I'm from Eastern Canada and they are used here primarily by commercial boats and heavier boats that can tolerate the awkward handling and extra weight. I've seen them all down the East Coast of the US, Caribbean and South America.

My next door neighbor has one. He has it displayed in the small flower garden in front of his house. Looks nice, since we’re a waterfront community it fits right in.

That’s where I’d use it.

The best description I’ve seen of how those anchors work, and why they were used so successfully by the early Spanish and English explorers of north America was posted by Captain Will on the then TWL list. He notes how the treasure ship salvaged by Mel Fisher kept herself of the FL reefs during a hurricane by deploying one anchor at a time. The problem was the rodes all failed. He also describes why they seldom work on boats of our size today.

I have his professional engineers description of how they work saved. I’ll email the plain text if someone wants it.

Flame suit on

Mike

Take a look here for picture's of a "fisherman's anchor...
fisherman's anchor - Yahoo! Image Search Results

and here

Fisherman's Anchor

The are a good all around anchor...just lower "tested" holding power than many other types (kinda like a Bruce) but are famous for fooling people on how good they really are and the point is they set quickly in almost anything.

Here's an anchor test that includes the Herreshoff in solid bronze. The Herreshoff is the most advanced Kedge (I think Kedge is the most correct name for this anchor) that exists.http://http://store.hamiltonmarine.com/browse.cfm/anchor-yachtsman-38-lb-3-pc-storm-26-35-boat-150483/4,1190.html
http://www.BronzeBlocks.com

Notice in the anchor test the Herreshoff performed right along w the Bruce. And it was a lighter anchor. Many here have depended on the Bruce for long periods of time so using one of these anchors as a primary is not so far fetched. I've seen fishermen w one on their bow w the flukes vertical and the stock horizontal on the deck.
Someone mentioned fouling. The rode can wrap around the vertical fluke sticking up but that would take many or multiple swings w wind and/or tide.

The "yachtsman" does work very well , but as noted the exposed fluke can be a problem for tidal , boat reverses sets.

The solution is a second anchor .

The other hassle is weight , about 3 lbs of anchor per foot of LWL is used for sail, more for high windage power boats.

When curved pipes as cranes were common at the bow a 150 lb anchor was not a hassle , even just for overnight.
Today few small boats are fitted with the crane , till the boat is 60+ and even the more modern watch fob anchors start to go over 100 lbs.

There are some bottoms where the yachtsman is the only choice , so they have folding or break down versions.

Indeed you speak many truths FF but I think a 55lb Kedge would do fine on my 30' Willy. A 90lb anchor is overkill even for a Kedge. Better be a 90lb for your boat though. The test shows it's comparable to a Claw (re holding power) and a 33# Claw would be adequate and a 44# Claw overkill. For my boat not yours. I don't think anyone here is about to start using a Kedge ... not even me and I'm probably the most likely.

You mention the bow cranes on older boats ... I do think the little cranes are FAR more attractive than what we have today but not as convenient and convenience is now very important. I'll bet a lot of those cranes were bent trying to pull up well set anchors by people in a hurry. But maybe they were smarter in doze days.

fisherman anchors

The fisherman anchor talked about here is all we use on our 53' boat in the Philippines. They are very cheap for us to get made. We used American steel (rebar) from a bridge demolition, built during the 2nd world war or shortly after. We almost always anchor using two anchors with all polypropylene rode. This rode degrades badly with UV light so I never know how strong it is. Our rode is 1" and 1 1/4". These anchors don't always hold good in soft mud bottoms. Twice now we rode out typhoons setting 3 anchors and never dragging that I could tell. The wind during the typhoons changed 180 degrees.
I have however dove and saw our anchors not set in the proper position but still holding under light winds. I usually don't dive on them.
How heavy large are these anchors? I'm not really sure, more than 50 lbs. each and the largest must be close to 70 lbs.
We live on the boat and anchor about 90% of the time when not traveling at night.

I knew someone somewhere was using the Kedge so I'm glad you posted freshalaska. Did you use three rodes or one kinda like a treble hook when fishing? Or "tandam" anchoring.

For a 53' fishing vessel I wouldn't consider a 90lb Kedge "over kill" so it seems the performance you're experiencing is quite good. Do you hang the Kedge on the bow roller w one fluke sticking straight up? Or stow it otherwise.

You make no mention of chain and it's been said that no chain is necessary for this type so you're experience seems to make that largely valid. Why not use nylon? You get the poly 2nd hand cheap?

Thanks for sharing with your post.

fisherman anchors

First off our 53' boat is very narrow at the waterline and lightly built. The hull is only 10mm plywood. This October I am going to cover over the existing hull plywood with another layer of 5mm plywood epoxied glued on, and then covered with fiber cloth and epoxy resin.

When we set multiple anchors each is on it's own rode. Sometimes only one anchor is holding the boat but if one drags some then the other rode gets tight or if the wind or current changes only a little the other will get tight. Both anchors are set pretty close to each other with very little angle to the bow of our boat. I am starting to use short pieces of chain on the anchor because of the chance of coral cutting the rode. The poly line floats so sort of gets away above the coral if very little pull on the anchor line.

The poly is about 1/3 the price of nylon in the Philippines and very hard to get nylon larger than 3/4". The anchors are pulled by hand and my crew says that line smaller than 1" is hard to grip. They are doing the work so I don't argue. A lot of the time we have a small 3/8" trip line tied the head of the anchor to help break it loose when we go to pull up the anchor. If after a strong blow these anchors can really get buried deep.
When we pull the anchors I usually have two guys up on the bow. One can do it but two makes it a lot easier. The rode is all hand coiled before it is stowed and those anchors are heavy and my guys only weight around 135 pounds each and they never complain or break down.
We don't have a bow roller and stow the anchors with the bottom fluke pointing down over the side of the boat and tied the pipe railing. The t stock in laid flat on the deck.

freshalaska ... a very interesting post again. One 135lb guy pulling a 90lb anchor may make an interesting video. I don't like pulling a 35lb anchor w 20' of chain. Most in our culture tend strongly to shun old ways and designs but the extremely popular Claw anchors do seem to buck that trend. There were some that ditched their Claws and bought the latest trick anchor lately but I'll bet the vast majority still have their Claws.

One of my links in post #7 didn't work .. here's another try.

I see it worked so here is what appears to be a well made and not cheap Kedge type anchor readily available. They have a wide variety of sizes. It can be seen that they have a fluke much like the Herreshoff kedge and probably have holding power comparable to the Claw.

It's interesting that they call this anchor a "storm" anchor. Perhaps due to it's basic foldability.

Anchor Yachtsman 38 Lb 3 Pc Storm 26'-35' Boat