Rocna in Grass?

>my new mantus at a 105 pounds is way over size and sets the first time. I do sleep better on the hook now<

So does everyone else in the anchorage.

Folks watch the anchoring drill of every new arrival , just as they watch docking shows .

Seeing a watch fob tossed in the water , upwind of your anchor spot , in never conducive to a good nights sleep .

FF said:

>
Folks watch the anchoring drill of every new arrival , just as they watch docking shows .

Seeing a watch fob tossed in the water , upwind of your anchor spot , in never conducive to a good nights sleep .

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You got that right! Drawing anything over 5 foot almost guarantees that around here.


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We met John at Grand Cay last July, tied up right behind him at Rosy's for about 4 days. Really nice and interesting guy. Also had a plane on Walker's while we were there. He was kind of gruff at first, right when we pulled in he grumbled at us to be careful with our dinghy around his teak transom. But after that he was really cool and fun to talk to. He gave us weather reports every day.

FF said:

Folks watch the anchoring drill of every new arrival , just as they watch docking shows .

Seeing a watch fob tossed in the water , upwind of your anchor spot , in never conducive to a good nights sleep .

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Amen to that. It's a circus some times. And the Drags-A-Lot crowd don't seem to ever see a problem with their technique, anchor size, or, well, anything.

You're right though. Every new boat that comes in is sized up. And bigger anchors equate to stress reduction all around. On my 23'er I'm carrying/using a 33 pound Rocna. Bigger boats (that's almost everybody else) should have and use bigger anchors in my opinion.

"He was kind of gruff at first,...."
That's John. He loves Rosie's.

He's very proud of that transom. The lettering is gold leaf and he varnished it himself.

If you see him again, ask him about using his Delta anchor to hold his boat off the dock at Rosie's during a hurricane. It saved his beloved transom.

HopCar said:

"He was kind of gruff at first,...."
That's John. He loves Rosie's.

He's very proud of that transom. The lettering is gold leaf and he varnished it himself.

If you see him again, ask him about using his Delta anchor to hold his boat off the dock at Rosie's during a hurricane. It saved his beloved transom.

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Yeah, we talked about that hurricane incident. Our old boat was on the hard at the same time in Black Sound, GTC. We like Grand a lot. We were there for a while waiting for the fuel barge to get back from Grand Bahama. We just bonefished, conched and drank beer all day. It wasn't so bad. We will be back this coming June. I'm bring the new boat through the OWW next week and keeping it in a slip in Stuart until then. Last few trips I've been crossing direct from Stuart to Grand, skipping West End. Using the stream to push us we can cruise along at 16 knots and make that 110 NM run pretty easily. We clear at Walkers.

I have anew Delta thanks to Hopkins Carter and Parks.

Compared to my CQR, so far, there is no comparison, the Delta sets like my CQR only dreamed of.

I can't really see how a Ronca or other anchor that cost three times more can be that much better.

Hi Richard, Thanks for the plug! I wish you were still in Miami. We're having a tent party at the store next Friday and Saturday. There will be lots of good food. Any of you TF folks near Miami, we'd love to see you.

We anchored at GSC, man that thing set FAST, not sure what our scope was but probably more then needed. the grass spots were further in which meant shallower water which also meant we couldn't go. Didn't get a chance to put the dink in the water to ride over the anchor, but wouldn't of been able to see it anyways as it was stormy and rough.

I can add some slight experience. My cruising grounds are FL, both coasts and Bahamas.
First anchor I had was a Delta, then went to a Fortress and also a steel danforth type as secondary, lastly a Rocna. Went over the same grounds with each anchor, about three years with the Delta and danforths then two years with Rocna.
All good in medium mud. All good in soft sand. Hard sand sometimes had the Fortress sliding along, steel one was a bit better. Delta and Rocna both set well, Rocna slightly quicker to dig in.
Sand and weed. Fortress was hopeless, steel danforth about the same, both clogging with weed. Rocna has issues with weed as well, it will get through the top growth but hangs in the root bed and then drags a lump of it along. Delta was a bit better with a higher chance of getting far enough in to get through the roots.
Unless I could drop on a sand patch with no weed bed then I wouldn't really trust any anchor that I tried to get a good hold.
Getting an initial light set without dragging and then working the boat around would sometimes get the anchor through the bed and a good hold. Lots of variables, experience choosing drop point, initial scope to get a first set, working the anchor in, final scope etc., different anchors for particular situation and testing the hold when sure it is set but not before or you'll just pull it out.
Why bother, some people don't and they are usually still there in the morning, maybe I'm too cautious!

Colwyn, I see that was your first post, welcome aboard. We normally try to avoid talking about the A word (anchor) as you see what happens. Seventy posts and we're no closer to knowing The Worlds Best Anchor than when we started.

Parks, leave Colyn alone. That was probably one of the best posts about anchors we have had. Nothing beats experience.

The guys down under have about sold me on the Sarca Excel. Of course it may be up side down to use in the northern hemisphere. Maybe Rex has a reverse model for that.

Moonstruck said:

Parks, leave Colyn alone. That was probably one of the best posts about anchors we have had. Nothing beats experience.

The guys down under have about sold me on the Sarca Excel. Of course it may be up side down to use in the northern hemisphere. Maybe Rex has a reverse model for that.

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Don....I would think that paintjob came with a dynamic positioning device so the boat stayed exactly in place and never closer than a fender width from anything....

psneeld said:

Don....I would think that paintjob came with a dynamic positioning device so the boat stayed exactly in place and never closer than a fender width from anything....

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Scott, you saw it in the rough while Roger was grinding and sanding for primer. I would hate to mess up Roger's work.

Don, I have to admit this is one of the most civil discussions of the A word we've ever had. Nobody has threatened to kill anybody.

I've been hearing such good things about the Rocna that I've decided to replace my 14 pound Delta with a much smaller Rocna.

I'm replacing my chain with monofilament fishing line.

Yes HopCar,
It seems odd to me that guys will replace their old anchor w a new one that's supposed to have several times as much holding power and tell about how great it works. But they get one or two sizes bigger. Doesn't strike me as an act of confidence re their new anchor.

When I bought one of these new style anchors (Supreme) I bought an 18lb version that would be close to most anchor charts recommended weight ... But probably a tad shy. Still I'm happy w it. Haven't used it in a blow yet though.

An anchor I see in European tests that I'm impressed w is the Kobra II. Is that anchor available in the US? It's very much like the Delta.

I went from a 315 lb cqr to a 110 kg rocna.


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cafesport,
Appears to be rational thinking and your Rocna is probably up to it. Does that anchor weight to boat size measure up to a number of weight to boat recomendations? Probably and most or all of the roll bar anchors usually test well enough to perhaps go one size actually smaller but I don't want to go on record recomending it. Especially since the Rocna isn't perfect. Did you see the 2006 anchor test on the thread "Best Claw Type Anchor" that the Rocna did poorly in? It usually does really well but every person and every anchor has it's bad day. They thought the Bismark was indestructible until it got destroyed.

Moonstruck said:

The guys down under have about sold me on the Sarca Excel. Of course it may be up side down to use in the northern hemisphere. Maybe Rex has a reverse model for that.

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It will orient itself provided you christen it with a can of Aussie beer.

If your boat is anchored with a Sarca in the northern hemisphere, does your toilet water circle the other direction?

Wxx3 said:

I have anew Delta thanks to Hopkins Carter and Parks.

Compared to my CQR, so far, there is no comparison, the Delta sets like my CQR only dreamed of.

I can't really see how a Ronca or other anchor that cost three times more can be that much better.

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Richard, you summed it up well. The answer is no - it is not 3 times better, no where near. In fact the Delta is, in my view, about the best of the rest, with some of the newer types better in some situations only. The secret was the doing away with that wretched hinged shank. It was one of those things that just 'seemed like a good idea at the time', to counter tidal shifts. It wasn't - period. The hinged shank is what allows it to bounce along firm or weedy bottoms and fail to set unless great skill and patience is exercised.

Once set, the plow shaped fluke is good. It digs in deep and the sharp point deals well with weed, just as long as the thing digs deep enough to reach the firm substrate before it fills with weed and gets blocked. That's where the speed of set becomes more crucial. The longer it has to be dragged along the bottom to get it to dig in the more time to gouge out large amounts of weed etc. Hence the points mentioned re the relative performances of several different types by our first time poster above, (and yes, Colwyn, welcome to the forum - some good info there).

The advantage the newer type have is in having that quicker more reliable first set, and deeper dig and holding power at the extremes in most bottoms.
The Sarca Excel, Moonstruck referred to is quite similar to the Delta in many ways - subtly different is others, but in many bottoms, probably performs about the same. It shares the concept of the convex, as opposed to concave, fluke shape, thereby less likely to fill with gouged material, be it mud or weed, and it sets quickly.

Hopcar said....Seventy posts and we're no closer to knowing The Worlds Best Anchor than when we started.

I beg to respectfully differ...
In the opinion of many, (myself included),it (the Sarca Excel), is thought to currently be the worlds best anchor…there….I've said it…time alone will tell. Hey, sometime someone has to stick their neck out...

Moonstruck said:

The guys down under have about sold me on the Sarca Excel. Of course it may be up side down to use in the northern hemisphere. Maybe Rex has a reverse model for that.

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Don, you are just being silly.

However...........it would be necessary to reverse the Coriolis flange on the Sarca for use in the northern hemisphere, other wise the anti clockwise rotational effect when dropping the anchor will cause the anchor to increase its rotational motion and in worst case scenarios it can become so severe as to create whirlpools.

This was thought to have happened when a large consignment of New Zealand anchors were sold in Bermuda, in the early 1930's, several boats were lost in unexplained circumstances. There was a rumour that Peter Smith's father was involved.