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Old 09-12-2016, 09:42 PM   #123
Nomad Willy
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City: Concrete Washington State
Vessel Name: Willy
Vessel Model: Willard Nomad 30'
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 18,743
Dave,
A spare for an Excel is a hard clam to crack.

A spare anchor should be like a VP in the whitehouse. Complementry. To step in and do a reasonably good job under a wide variety of conceveable circumstances. Should be economical as it would be most likely not used. Should be dependable as it may be needed in demanding circumstances.

A Claw seems obvious to shoe in. It's dependability is questionable. But that shortcomming is reduced very quickly as size increases. So if a big Claw actually becomes dependable (from excess size) it could rival the primary. And as a spare that would fit nicely. But the question of dependability would vary widely among users ... from what I hear and read. But the Claw is very flexible .. can be used on almost any bottom, at any scope and veering but perhaps not reversals.

Another way to look at it is to carry a spare like a small 45mph spare tire on a car. To get you where you can replace your primary anchor. A small Supreme or SUPER SARCA. Undersized and more or less lightweight. Handy to use in an emergency. Easy to store and deploy. But just big enough to hold in a strong breeze (35-40mph) but probably not in a gale. Think again of the donut spare on a car.

A Mantus has very very good ratings for setting dependability. Good holding too. It's disassembles so would store easily.

But many think a second anchor should be of a different type than the usually used anchor. An anchor that does well where the other does not .. or is weak. I don't know that there is a weakness in the Excel's performance. Could be mud and I really can't think of any other possible weakness. But I personally don't know much about the anchor.
So if a president is perfect the VP should mirror the president. But no president is perfect nor is any anchor but if you've got one close perhaps another Excel would be the smart thing to do. Just as a guess I'm going to throw out the Spade .. a small one to keep the price down. Actually there is a good sale going on now at the duckworks for new anchors and they have reconditioned Spades for sale. Look at Steve's (Panope) vids and hear again what he says about the Spade.

I wish we had more posts about what anchors that members are using. Would be nice to have a poll of 100 or more members but that doesn't look likely.
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Eric

North Western Washington State USA
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