I Will Pay The $$. Which Anchor Is Best?

I only have room for one anchor on the bow.
My boat is 21000 lbs, four foot draft and ten feet of house above the water.
I travel up the east coast annually from Florida to New England.
I am willing to pay the price.
What is the best anchor to buy???

Pgitug said:

I only have room for one anchor on the bow.
My boat is 21000 lbs, four foot draft and ten feet of house above the water.
I travel up the east coast annually from Florida to New England.
I am willing to pay the price.
What is the best anchor to buy???

Click to expand...

Why don't you just call Hopcar and save us the agony of reading 200 replies.

A large Fortress anchor.

http://fortressanchors.com/selection-guide/fortress

The lightweight anchor your body will appreciate.
Seeing they are not as heavy, you can easily go bigger.

The biggest your windlass will recover.

AN anchor float to the crown is good insurance.

I would use a 35H Danforth , or a 45 genuine CQR what fits the bow roller best but that's just me.

Loosing a set is not uncommon so hopefully you will have 2-3 complete sets available on board , and of course a stern anchor. Useful with a dink for kedging off when aground.

WE use the stern anchor ( set from the bow) at bridges for a quick stop, rather than milling about smartly for 10-30+++ min as required.

sdowney717 said:

A large Fortress anchor.

Fortress Anchors – The World's Best Anchors! – Fortress

The lightweight anchor your body will appreciate.
Seeing they are not as heavy, you can easily go bigger.

Click to expand...

The Fortress anchor is pretty good but I can't see the logic in shaving a few pounds off the anchor when it's attached to 200 pounds of chain.

The "best" anchor is the one that works for your boat in the conditions you boat in. If you don't drag anchor with your current anchor, you don't need a "better" one.

And remember, an anchor is something that you might eventually lose. You don't want to leave a $1000 anchor on the bottom.

Oh dear...

Am I the only one bugged by the idea of an anchor held together with some tiny little nuts and bolts??

So unless you needed your anchor to disassemble (like a storm anchor kept in storage) I would prefer a Fortress as a primary anchor if it were all welded together permanently. Assuming it is 6061-T6, then it would need to be retempered.

At least you didn't ask anything controversial.....

I also will be anchor shopping soon I hope. I currently have a 45 lbs genuine CQR on my sailboat. When it is set, it holds great. However, sometimes I have to mess around with it a lot to get it to set. I have a Fortress disassembled in the aft lazarette as a stern anchor that I have never used.

I may be the new owner of another boat in a week or so. The anchor on it is a too small CQR copy. From what I have seen, I am thinking of buying the Sarca Excel if they do get a North American distributor and it isn't too stupid expensive. For a reserve anchor, which this boat doesn't have, I am thinking about the Mantus as it will store well. Maybe I can use the smallish CQR copy as a stern anchor.

Good luck with your search. I would go through the anchor video thread and watch all those great videos and see what anchor appeals to you, then check the price.

WesK said:

The Fortress anchor is pretty good but I can't see the logic in shaving a few pounds off the anchor when it's attached to 200 pounds of chain.

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The advantage of a Fortress is its light weight, so a short leader of chain on hundreds of feet of nylon would be the most advantageous setup. If you're using all chain then go Danforth or other steel.

RT Firefly said:

Oh dear...

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+1

Pgitug said:

I only have room for one anchor on the bow.
My boat is 21000 lbs, four foot draft and ten feet of house above the water.
I travel up the east coast annually from Florida to New England.
I am willing to pay the price.
What is the best anchor to buy???

Click to expand...

I will say nuss-ssing, other than to suggest you do as someone else suggested and look at this thread, especially the last few pages...then make up your own mind.
http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s42/anchor-setting-videos-23378.html

Especially page 15, post 290, and page 17, post 323

Since this isn't a controversial subject, I'm not afraid to express my opinion.....

... how about considering a stockless anchor with large fluke area? A Pool or an AC-14 would give the advantage of burying itself like a Danforth, having heavy weight to help hold in rocky or rough bottoms, and generally are priced a fraction of a more mainstream anchor. Plus they usually store fine on a bow roller.

FF said:

The biggest your windlass will recover.

AN anchor float to the crown is good insurance.

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What he said.

As to type of anchor, I'd use a spade type like a large Rocna.

FF said:

The biggest your windlass will recover.

AN anchor float to the crown is good insurance.

Click to expand...

Another of my silly questions, what do you mean by an anchor float?

Pgitug said:

I only have room for one anchor on the bow.
My boat is 21000 lbs, four foot draft and ten feet of house above the water.
I travel up the east coast annually from Florida to New England.
I am willing to pay the price.
What is the best anchor to buy???

Click to expand...

Got a windlass?

I'm partial to the SuperMAX anchors if I don't have to manually lift the weight. Have no first-hand experience with many of the other styles, so can't say its "the best."

I like the simplicity of anchors with no moving parts (although ours pivots, so has moving parts)... but the Simpson-Lawrence Delta anchors we've used have given mixed results a couple times. On the whole, fairly reliable in many types of sub-strate, but not particularly perfect for where we are now except in massive weights. Others, like the Ultra and so forth, look good on paper, but... see other anchor threads for debates about those.

WesK said:

The Fortress anchor is pretty good but I can't see the logic in shaving a few pounds off the anchor when it's attached to 200 pounds of chain.

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I think of it backwards from that: the weight savings allows me to select a physically larger anchor... for the same weight. If the windlass will haul 100-lbs, a 100-lb Fortress is bigger than a 100-lb steel Danforth.

makobuilders said:

Am I the only one bugged by the idea of an anchor held together with some tiny little nuts and bolts??

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Yes.



-Chris

As others have said, I'd definitely recommend reading the 'anchors setting' thread. I've got a fortress myself, and have been happy with it, but I also recognize it's limitations. If I had deeper pockets, and a bigger heavier boat, I'd get meself a Spade. Whatever makes ya happy, man.

The anchor setting videos (great work BTW) have just about convinced me to go with a Mantus for our primary.

WesK said:

The Fortress anchor is pretty good but I can't see the logic in shaving a few pounds off the anchor when it's attached to 200 pounds of chain.

The "best" anchor is the one that works for your boat in the conditions you boat in. If you don't drag anchor with your current anchor, you don't need a "better" one.

And remember, an anchor is something that you might eventually lose. You don't want to leave a $1000 anchor on the bottom.

Click to expand...

One trick is drop a circular looping coils of very heavy chain down to stuck anchor, then maybe you can pull it out at an angle to the original anchor line.
When you pull the line attached to chain coils, they will bunch up on the stuck anchor backing it out.

dhays said:

Another of my silly questions, what do you mean by an anchor float?

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It's a second line fastened to the opposite end of the anchor (the working end) and a floating ball at the surface. If the anchor hangs up, it is sometimes possible to pull it loose with this second line. It's often called a "trip line" and you can get a better description of how it works with a web search.

If the anchor is going to hang off the bow, I would recommend one of the modern scoop style anchors. They hold well and self launch when you slack the rode.
My personal preference would be for a Rocna or Vulcan but those are the ones I sell. The others on the market seem to be very good as well.

If you want to try a Rocna or Vulcan on your bow to see how it fits, it doesn't take much to talk me into driving over to Punta Gorda.

The anchor setting vids only cover several anchors.

Any of these will do in alphabetical order.

Rocna
SARCA
Spade
Supreme

I would include the Excel, Boss and Vulcan if more testing was done but I'm quite sure either one will also perform as you wish.

HOWEVER I would advise to have other anchors "as needed" and preferably w differing abilities re bottom type and wind and surge or swell. One anchor (preferably on the bow) should be excellent at short scope.

My vote for the best single anchor on the bow intended to do everything very well with the probable exception short scope performance. The four represent (IMO) the best for you relative to your needs stated. Once you pick an anchor size can be considered.
1. SARCA
2. Spade
3. Supreme
4. Rocna

A third anchor on board that excels in mud like a Fortress is almost a must.
This is all an evolving opinion.

WesK said:

It's a second line fastened to the opposite end of the anchor (the working end) and a floating ball at the surface. If the anchor hangs up, it is sometimes possible to pull it loose with this second line. It's often called a "trip line" and you can get a better description of how it works with a web search.

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Thanks WesK. When I searched for an anchor float all I found were systems to help raise small anchors without a windless on a fast boat. That didn't seem to be right. Now I know what to search for.

After an absurd amount of time reading "anchor opinions" all over the Internet I selected a Rocna Vulcan.
One reason-it fit on my bow.
I'll let you know how it works as soon as I actually get it wet-a month or so.

dhays said:

Thanks WesK. When I searched for an anchor float all I found were systems to help raise small anchors without a windless on a fast boat. That didn't seem to be right. Now I know what to search for.

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You're welcome.

Anchors

Pgitug said:

I only have room for one anchor on the bow.
My boat is 21000 lbs, four foot draft and ten feet of house above the water.
I travel up the east coast annually from Florida to New England.
I am willing to pay the price.
What is the best anchor to buy???

Click to expand...

I have relied on "Bruce" anchors for primary since 1981. My 38 ft Helmsman probably weighs close to 38,000 lbs loaded and I have a 45 lb ss "Bruce" clone with 300 ft of 1/4" HT chain. I carry a 15 lb Fortress with 20 ft of 3/8" chain and 250 ft of 5/16" nylon 3 strand rode as backup. The backup has never been used. The bruce has a near perfect record of setting first time, never dragging, and reliably resetting itself if wind or current shifts. In my cruising area, bottom conditions vary from mud to sand to rock. The Bruce doesn't foul with weeds as much as the Danforth type, and is much stronger.

Anchor

Bought a Mantus last summer. Could not be more pleased. While other boats were not holding in strong wind and wave the Mantus did. Have a Bruce as back up but I find no comparison. You drop it and your done. No worries!

I agree. Call Parks at Hopkins Carter.

I got my Delta from him and frankly have seen no data which shows a $1000+ anchor is significantly better then the Delta I got from Parks.

Richard in Ireland

HopCar said:

If the anchor is going to hang off the bow, I would recommend one of the modern scoop style anchors. They hold well and self launch when you slack the rode.
My personal preference would be for a Rocna or Vulcan but those are the ones I sell. The others on the market seem to be very good as well.

If you want to try a Rocna or Vulcan on your bow to see how it fits, it doesn't take much to talk me into driving over to Punta Gorda.

Click to expand...

Then why did you sell me that Delta?
Was it because I wanted value and not hype?

Shame on you for giving the customer what they need and not what you want.

If the OP is willing to pay $$$$$$, then my anchor, a 60 pound Manson Supreme has never let me down, time proven, knows the drill (well trained) and is a bargain at $1500.....I was only going to take $2000, but a few rust spots from use are a slight detractor....


I'll part with the best for such a reasonable sum because I will take the proper time and energy to train it's replacement....

For the record I have a Delta on my boat.
I think the Delta is still a good value.